Look out, Windy's got a new favorite band, and it's Cerberus Shoal. Never mind that I'm a latecomer to the group -- "Crash My Moon Yacht" is their _fifth_ album -- it's never too late to experience the crashing beauty that is Cerberus Shoal. High time, too, as this band, who live and make music together in Portland, Maine, has been grievously overlooked throughout their career.
On such Western and ethnic instruments as bowed guitar, balalaika, flute, trumpet, dholak, woodblocks, oud, quena, radios, whistles, electric bass, hammond organ, xylophone, etc, Cerberus Shoal plays a stretched out, intense yet langurous blend of mostly-instrumental drone-rock similar to many of the bands AQ knows and loves. They're equally epic and emotional as Godspeed You Black Emperor, but less weepy. They're as careful as Tarentel, yet much more complex. As for other groups who feature ethnic instrumentation, Cerberus offers a worthy challenge: far more consistent than the spotty Sun City Girls, they don't try to wrestle their ouds, djembes and congas into pop song structures like Macha does, and they're more accessible and varied than Pelt. Without meaning to slight any of those groups, hopefully comparisons will make it clear to you just how amazing and worthy of your time this group is. Live and on record, the band displays amazing restraint -- although the stage is crowded with dozens of instruments, at any one time only 3 or 4 distinct sounds will be in play, making for any number of possible sonic combinations, all the while keeping the music simple and utterly respectful of each instrument's unique timbre. There are even parts that remind us of music as disparate as Boards of Canada and prog rock, that's how evocative it is. Very late night soundscape-y. I can't say enough good things about this band. If you've got the patience and the desire for meaningful music that's as substantive as it is lovely, Cerberus Shoal will make you so happy.
Long awaited new album from the Portland, Maine collective known as Cerberus Shoal. Their signature sound is intact: a meandering, honey-slow drive towards perfection. They'll take so long to build up to the crashing climaxes that you sometimes forget you're
P.S.When people ask me about Cerberus Shoal, I usually quote this past review:
On such Western and ethnic instruments as bowed guitar, balalaika, flute, trumpet, dholak, woodblocks, oud, quena, radios, whistles, electric bass, hammond organ, xylophone, etc, Cerberus Shoal plays a stretched out, intense yet langurous blend of mostly-instrumental drone-rock similar to many of the bands AQ knows and loves. They're equally epic and emotional as Godspeed You Black Emperor, but less weepy. They're as careful as Tarentel, yet much more complex. As for other groups who feature ethnic instrumentation, Cerberus offers a worthy challenge: far more consistent than the spotty Sun City Girls, they don't try to wrestle their ouds, djembes and congas into pop song structures like Macha does, and they're more accessible and varied than Pelt.
Besides having probably the coolest/stupidest band name ever, Brooklyn skate punks Cerebral Ballzy return with another killer clutch of songs they claim to be about more high minded topics than their first record (chicks, skating, puking, etc.) but a quick scan of the song titles reveals, they haven't pushed the subject matter too far, fake I.D.'s, skating, fast food, and chicks, all still seem to be the focal point, but what has changed is the sound. That first record was a dizzying blast of short sharp punk rock in the style of the old school classics, equal parts Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies, but this time around the band have gotten downright poppy, injecting some serious power poppiness and loads of hooky melody into the jams, resulting in some seriously addictive, and seriously poppy post punk, that ends up ultimately being a lot more more sonically satisfying than that first record. More original for sure, a cool hybrid of that feral punk energy with more actual songsmithery. The tracks are longer, the sound is much more lush and well produced too, but more importantly, the songs themselves are killer, essentially pop songs in punk clothing, and we're not talking the dreaded pop punk, we're talking pop flecked punk rock, of noise pop, or fuzzy pop, or punkish pop, whatever you wanna call it, the vibe throughout touches on classic power pop of the past, post punk too, and while there are moments of straight up punk rock pound, for the most part, those parts are woven into what is essentially a killer batch of punky pop that should have fans of other like minded outfits like the Zig Zags, The Shrine, Hot Lunch and the rest, freaking out big time.
When we first went to the South By Southwest music conference in Austin, we were sort of overwhelmed by how many bands were playing, often at the same time, and everywhere, in clubs, on street corners, in bars, in empty lots, and we were even more shocked by how many bands were playing that we had never heard of. Literally thousands. And of all of those bands, there was only really one we wanted to see. Based entirely on their name. Yep, it was these guys. Cerebral Ballzy. The worst band name ever? Hardly. The best? Maybe. Needless to say, we were never able to actually see them, so we comforted ourselves by just assuming they must be amazing, cuz how could a band name themselves that and NOT be?
Funny thing is, we had no idea what they sounded like. We were guessing some sort of angular new wave, or some sort of snotty garage rock, we imagined they must be from Brooklyn, and it seemed like Vice would be fans, but really what kind of assumptions can you realistically draw from a band name like theirs? So out of the blue, their debut record dropped, and before even hearing it, we were still more impressed, the cover sporting a sticker that proudly proclaimed "'We Hate This Band' - Pitchfork Media", the Pettibon cover art, the faded photocopied old punk flyer booklet and their 'logo', a skeleton flipping the bird, wearing a cholo style buttoned-up-to-the-top shirt and a Suicidal cap with the flipped up brim (although instead of Suicidal it says Cerebral), which did all start steering us in a more punk rock direction, which is in fact what these guys sound like, old school classic punk rock, a little skate punk, a little Hermosa Beach, a little Suicidal, but filtered through a more modern sonic aesthetic. They ARE from Brooklyn, and Vice DO dig em, but beyond that, we were way off. This is classic punk rock, snooty, snarly, swaggery, pounding, knuckle dragging, sweat soaked, bruised and bloody, short sharp blasts of crunch and pound that we imagine would most definitely get that pit roiling, but whether they meant to or not, that sound is peppered with some surprising melodies, some subtle post rockisms, a killer production, and loads of hooks, but those moments are definitely fleeting, as this is, at its core, PUNK RAWK. And we dig it.
Fantastico! Here's an obscure Spanish psych rock reissue that we're so glad that Shadoks finally got their hands on. Get ready for some of the weirdest, most badass fuzzed out garage psych rockin' you have ever heard. Cerebrum, from Madrid, released just two 7" singles on Barcelona's progressive Dimension label, both in 1970. Soon after, they broke up, and never made a full-length album. So then, what's this? Shadoks, in cooperation with original Cerebrum guitarist Javier Esteve, have unearthed a bunch of previously unreleased early Cerebrum recordings by the band, five live-in-the-studio demos from 1969, presented here along with the four cuts from their 45s (one of 'em, title track "Eagle Death", heard for the first time in its full 6 minute 18 second glory, the original single track having been an edit).
That extended version of "Eagle Death", which opens the disc, is pretty wild, on par with Japanese craziness of the era like Food Brain or Brush!?, a schizophrenic garage rave-up of fuzz guitar explosions, distorted underwater-sounding vocals, manic harp blowin' and sudden tempo changes. Every element seemingly going off in its own direction, then slipping back together to sync up with urgent rhythmic umph. And, before it's over, into the midst of all this mayhem some nice classical piano melody weirdly drifts in from someplace else! With the harmonica, this track makes us think of some warped version of something by the Yardbirds or the Count Five - maybe even a track off of Count Five's totally fictional, totally grungy Carburetor Dung album, as imagined by Lester Bangs. Yep, it's gotta be one of the most wacked out psych singles cuts ever� until you hear the NEXT one on here, its B side, the awesomely titled "Read A Book", which juxtaposes some even gnarlier fuzz guitar soloing, with such gentle heartfelt vocals. The songs from their other 45 are equally killer - the percolating, high energy "Times Door" hits hard, and then its flip, "It's So Hard!" could kinda been Cerebrum's take on the sort of thing Cream was doing back then, yer basic blues rock jamming� but� it's just so SICK. Guitarist Esteve never lets up on the stinging fuzz action, delivering the distortion with demented glee.
Those four singles tracks - which could be aQ faves Los Dug Dugs on a bad, bad trip - are reason enough to get this, essential in and of themselves, but the other, previously unreleased material is woozy cool too. Those earlier tracks add swirling, whirling organ (played by one "Perry") to the mix, and are a bit more murky, and maybe also more good-time rollicking and rollin', than the sharper-edged Cerebrum of the singles. Most of 'em are covers, including versions of songs by Moby Grape, Bo Diddley, and Canned Heat - the endless boogie of "One Kind Favor" by the latter is probably our fave among those.
This reish comes complete with detailed liner notes and vintage photos, its truly a labor of love, and recommended to anyone into garage psych at its most, uh, extreme. aQ customers who bought Blue Phantom last time probably will be the ones who'll want this too.
We don't do this often, but sometimes, the easiest thing is just to link to a YouTube video. Especially 'cause it's what got us interested in tracking down this reissue in the first place! Made us kind of obsessed, actually. You'll see/hear why if you go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgGK4qBTwpw&ob=av2n, and check out the psychedelic video version of this album's title track. (For those who just want a quick idea, take a look at the album cover operating room scene, that's in the vid, complete with people dressed up in disturbing animal masks, a Rolls Royce driving through the desert, naked ladies in the jungle, and, well, just watch it...)
So, Jean-Marc Cerrone was/is a French dance music producer and badass drummer (elsewhere on YouTube you can see him live in concert, kicking out the massive drum solos). The more disco-savvy among us here had heard of him, he's up there with Giorgio Moroder in the Euro-Disco pantheon. And Supernature, from 1977, his 3rd album, is the jam. A disco-PROG masterpiece. The title track starts things off, the one that crazy video's for, and dominates, being almost ten minutes long in its album version. An epic. No ordinary club fare here, on the surface maybe, but the disco diva vocals (lyrics by Lene Lovich!) are about some dystopian sci-fi scenario wherein twisted science is turning men into monstrous beasts (which explains - sort of - some of the video's surreal imagery), these mutants rising up against their masters. Hauntingly, she sings lines like "how can I explain, things are different today, darkness all around, and no one makes a sound..." Woah, downer disco. It's pretty dark, and weird, and the thump thump thump of the music gets that way too, with some fat synth bass riffing at about the six minute mark that brings this into imaginary Magma doing disco territory, almost. Cerrone sure puts his state of the art ARP Odyssey Mk III to good use here. The track ends with hint of 2001's "Also Sprach Zarathustra", that's how epic this is. The rest of the side maintains the mood, "Supernature" segueing seamlessly into Cerrone's solo spot "Sweet Drums", his insistent beats heavily effected and spaced out, and that's followed by the more blissfully eerie electronics of "In The Smoke", which could be from a Goblin soundtrack.
Side two (tracks 4-6 on this cd), is the brighter side... More typical fusion-funked Euro-Disco anthems, all three songs with "Love" in the title ("Give Me Love", "Love Is Here", "Love Is The Answer"), great stuff though, top-knotch! Lush, lively dancefloor fodder for sure.
So, recommended to fans of Zombi, Goblin, Moroder, and the recently departed Donna Summer. This import reish, in one of those rounded-corner "Super Jewel Boxes", comes with extensively detailed liner notes in the cd booklet, illustrated in full color.
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A live collision of the combined forces of Mick Harris (Scorn) and Tony Child (Surgeon) making freaky nightmare sonic landscapes.
Early lp featuring guitarist Ry Cooder, originally released in 1967. Ceyleib People was Cooder's '60s hippy acid rock outfit, super spacey and groovy and trippy, with a lot of Eastern mystical twang to it (SITAR!). Ravi Beefheart? Mostly instrumental dronestrum with stabs of distorted guitar picking and mesmeric rhythm, like a Spaghetti Western raga or instance of 'California Krautrock'. Pretty cool!!! Note: all tunes published by 'Hookah Publishing Co.', which should tell you something.
2015 repress, 180 gram vinyl version.
Once you know what CFM stands for, a lot of you will instantly know you want this. CFM = Charles Francis Moothart, or Charlie Moothart (sometimes Moonheart), the multi-instrumentalist who is one of Ty Segall's partners in fuzzed out garage psych crime, playing alongside Ty in both Fuzz and the Ty Segall Band, and elsewhere. So for sure fans of blown out bluesy garage fuzz (and the band Fuzz, of course) will say HELLS YEAH to this, Charlie's first solo joint, full of exactly the sort of toe-tapping, amped-up garagey goodness you'd expect, with lotsa melodic strum & catchy choruses as well amidst the distortion. Needless to say, super recommended, especially to fans of Fuzz, Ty Segall, Charlie's other buddy Mikal Cronin, Thee Oh Sees, Castle Face stuff� and also, what with the way these tracks are so often laced with laced with big dollops of synth wizzery and wild spacey FX, this is suggested for those into Comets On Fire or the likes of Simply Saucer too! Freakin' good stuff.
Greetings! Your hostess Miss Lady Hand Grenade is here with her Olympia, WA friends Nikki McClure, Miranda July, Old Tyme Relijun, and a crowd of others for a grand indie pop show time. If there's one thing you can always count on with the Oly folk, it's a barrel of fun: theme shows, puppetry and music with something to say.
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3-song, 20 minute ep from a freaky avant-pop band featuring Jean-Herve Peron of Faust and Chris Karrer of Amon Duul II, two krautrock legends up to strange new tricks.
By this point the charismatic Ian Svenonius is most loved as a indie cultural icon, his ramblings, writings, and TV show (Soft Focus on VBTV.com) are all so undeniably entertaining and compelling. Though, we have to say we haven't been too thrilled with most of his musical output since he pulled the plug on The Make Up. But before that most of us were all pretty obsessed with his first band Nation Of Ulysses as well as the ultra short lived Cupid Car Club. His newest project Chain And The Gang is closest in aesthetic to the gospel funk of The Make Up. Lots of call and response vocals, tons of sharp witted sass, and darker take on that classic girl group sound. We'd still probably rather hear Ian shoot the shit or read his latest manifesto but this is sounding pretty darn OK to us. Not amazing by any stretch, but Ian Svenonius diehards (and we know you are out there!) will definitely want to snag this.
Killer debut of swaggery, gothy murk-punk / noise rock from these East Coast knuckledraggers, whose sound seems to channel everyone from the Stooges to His Electro Blue Voice, Slug to Pussy Galore, Unwound to Cop Shoot Cop. Shambolic and chaotic, wild and unhinged, a sort of bastard blooze, with loose-limbed octopoidal drumming, filthy guitars, howled feral vox, all recorded super hot and in-the-red, lurching from wild almost psychedelic freakouts, to doomy, dirge metal creep, some moments smack of classic glam rock (a la Hanoi Rocks, Smack) but doused in distorto-noise and rolled in dirt and broken glass. Even at its noisiest, some killer melodies and surprising hooks surface throughout, moments of extreme poppiness here and there, but almost always buried beneath an avalanche of crumbling distortion, strangled guitarnoise, flurries of drum damage, psychedelic squalls, out of which emerge some seriously kick ass and weirdly groovy sludge punk not to mention some unlikely and impossibly catchy, dirge-gloom noise pop. Killer stuff.
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Another installment of Finnish madness from the brilliant and unpredictable Bad Vugum label. Chainsmoker were born from the ashes of Bad Vugum stalwarts Sweetheart, but the sound is far from Sweetheart's freaked out guitar rock. Chainsmoker are a strange mix
Boy, were we looking forward to this: A strange 1974 French sci-fi based concept album that claims comparisons to both Alain Goraguer (La Planete Sauvage) and Jean-Claude Vannier (L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches, Melody Nelson), by some composer we had never heard of, Jacky Chalard, perhaps originally made under the assumed identity Gilbert Deflez (the booklet has the puzzling backstory). We were blown away by the opening number, "L'Agonie", almost fulfilling the promise of the B-Music folks' claims. But then almost all the following tracks are either spoken word, or strange radio plays in French (sort of in the same wacky spirit as Les Maledictus Sound), which we wouldn't mind normally, except the spoken stuff is on almost every track on the record, and after awhile, we want to just hear the backing music alone, because it IS so good! Occasionally, there is a French woman singing which is nice and there's a couple of Massiera-ish disco pop numbers, but overall, the narrative aspects becomes just a bit tedious. At least it's in French, though, that helps. We're sure this is a must have for some folks who dig the stranger realms of french prog-pop, but we can't recommend it as highly as La Planete Sauvage, Jean-Paul Massiera, or Jean-Claude Vannier.
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Another lost seminal punk rock classic, this one from DC's Chalk Circle, an all female punk rock band (supposedly the first to record and perform in DC), who existed for a couple years in the early eighties, and played alongside the usual DC suspects, but were definitely doing their own thing, challenging the prevailing sound and gender scene politics of the day. With a sound that would fit sonically alongside groups like the Slits, Delta 5, Lilliput, Raincoats, X-Ray Spex, Essential Logic and the like, Chalk Circle combined punk rock crunch with teenage energy, raw and urgent, frantic and frenetic, loose and ramshackle, but with some killer hooks, not so much 'punk rock' as indie pop / garage pop, this stuff would have been right at home on K Records or Kill Rock Stars in the early days.
The sound varies quite a bit (as does the recording quality), from bouncy almost danceable jangle punk, to reverby new wave, fuzzy pop-punk pound to primitive off kilter pop, bass heavy almost dubby post punk to spidery skeletal pop minimalism, laced with occasional bits of extra percussion, shouted back up vox, all held together by a super distinctive style and sound, which has us thinking there are a whole bunch of folks out there that would have loved these ladies back in the day, and anyone into the current crop of female punks: Brilliant Colors, Grass Widow, Pens, Yellow Fever, Sandwitches, etc. will probably dig this like crazy!
This lp collection gathers up various tracks from compilations, live shows, demos and unreleased tapes, and includes a big booklet with photos, press clippings and liner notes by Don Fleming (Velvet Monkeys, B.A.L.L.) whose Velvet Monkeys headlined Chalk Circle's first shows.
Our favorite Finnish label and perhaps one of our favorite labels anywhere on the globe go into the vaults for this one and we're so happy they did. Chamellows (aka Sleeping Bags) is the scrappy, playful, naive pop side of Lau Nau (Laura Naukkarinen, whose Locust release from a few years back was a big AQ favorite!) and visual artist Mikko Kuorinki. Pulled from various limited edition 7"s and cassette only releases these are recordings that date back as far as a decade ago. This is sweet and demented lo-fi pop with lively experimentation and an answering machine quality recording that suits these songs so perfectly. Had us thinking of what Ariel Pink might sound like if he were from Finland. Or The Shaggs and Daniel Johnston brought into a vacant house in the middle of Finland with some ragtag equipment and some yummy psychedelics on the tip of their tongues. So warped and wonderful!
From NYC, mellow indie-pop that references the likes of Big Star and the Pernice Brothers. Sweet (but not sugary) stuff with twinkling vibes and wistful male vocals. Lilting and gentle. It made me think "a modern-day Bread" which is a-ok. Oh yes, and if
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San Francisco's Champs (or C4AM95 as they prefer to be called for silly legal reasons) are an amazing two guitars and drums no bass, sometimes three guitars no drums, very rarely any vocals, trio that on this their debut album crank out over seventy minutes of catchy, complex, mostly instrumental metal in indie/math-rock clothing. Kind of like the indie-prog of Don Caballero or Breadwinner, with touches of Trans Am (the bombast and occasional "techno electronica" interlude) ...and healthy helpings of Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Metallica, Carcass, Motley Crue, Priest, etc. I could go on. Mesmerizing live, they're on tour now but will be back soon so I hope y'all went to their shows. For what it's worth, there's a former member of Nation of Ulysses in their ranks. Rec-o-f'n-mended.
A very timely release in light of the last few years' acute rash of no-wave revivalism. Actually it would've been good to see it even sooner! This box set arrives to shine a spotlight on one of the major players in the NYC no-wave scene back in the late '70s and early '80s. The man in question? James Chance (aka James White). The four cds compile his rare, out of print and unreleased skronky sax-laden white boy funk/jazz/rock tracks along with his four albums including the awesome, rare Buy This. Actually, four discs is really quite a bit of Mr. Chance - sure to thrill his most ardent of fans! But for the rest of us, perhaps a more welcome and more wallet-friendly release would've simply been that of the aforementioned album. Ask yourself, can you afford to contort yourself this time?
A genre-defining album finally receives its deserved reissue (along with a bunch of other James Chance / James White releases yet to be reviewed here). The genre? New York No Wave! Fingers crossed that it stays in print! Buy is well worth... uh, buying for the one song "Contort Yourself". Totally unbridled angular art jazz skronk sax no wave madness! Soooo good! If you have purchased anything current (i.e, last five years - on Troubleman Unlimited, etc) that falls under the banner 'no wave', buy this immediately and find out that 'no wave' was invented, defined and has yet to be bettered by anyone using the James Chance formula found on Buy The Contortions.
A couple of lists ago we raged about the recent reissuing of the Contortions' awesome BUY album. Well NYC No Wave fanatics, if that got you itchin' for more of Chance & co., you might wanna nab this live album that was reissued at the same time.
The recording effectively captured the insistent energy of the band as they whipped the audience into a frenzy at Bains Douches, Paris, France back on May 13, 1980. Opening with a speedy cover of Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", this live show breaks down into super loose acid sax jams, then more covers, a pause, more jams. The musicianship is constantly on the brink of falling apart but wildly energized and in the moment. The performance comes together for a finale of "Contort Yourself" leaving the crowd in a wild fervor. Highly recommended for all Chance and Contortions fans.
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We became huge fans of this heavy garage group from Christchurch, New Zealand after we got the reissue of their only proper album a little while back. Think a heavy, fuzzy, more primitive Monks, with more groove and less edge. This is a live recording from
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Re-issue of the output of this heavy garage group from Christchurch, New Zealand. The tracks on this cd were taken from recordings made between 1964 and 1966. Quite a nice, primitive sound -- like the Monks with more groove and less edge, and a bit more heavy fuzz.
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The debut album from the former lead vocalist of the awesome, electrifying French group Mano Negra! A wonderfully refreshing and uplifting cornucopia of styles.
Manu Chao, former leader of the French band Mano Negra, was born in France of Spanish parents, and in recent years has spent much of his musical career in South and Central America. And as you would expect, his music is a similar stew of sounds, all of which
Good things come to those who wait... and wait... and wait! Manu Chao fans, your patience has been rewarded with the release of Chao's first studio album in six years! Not surprisingly, La Radiolina is wonderful, a hyper kinetic album brimming with his trademark fiery spirited fusion of styles. So irresistible, even the biggest stick in the mud will find his or her body moving involuntarily to Chao's music. La Radiolina is a busy, crowded affair whose heart pounds to a variety of impassioned Latin American rhythms. Caught in this fevered embrace are layer upon layer of electric guitars, horns, flamenco guitars, keyboards and exuberant vocals sung mostly in Spanish with a little Portuguese, French, Italian and English too. 21 tracks ranging in length from a 68 second shot of adrenaline to just over four minutes.
Manu Chao (formerly of French band Mano Negra) releases a lengthy live album which is even more upbeat than his albums proper, if you can believe that. And if his albums are the perfect party soundtrack, then this live record *is* a party in an of itself. I can see the lighters waving julbilantly in the stadium right now. The music's foundation is in rock, overlayed with the surrealistic silliness of another AQ fave band Os Mutantes. Yep, it's that good. You hear a psychedelic pastiche of horns and rocksteady swing, samples of people chattering, bells and buzzes, Latin rhythms, dub, hip hop, vocals in Spanish, girl backup singers, addictively catchy singsong melodies. *Super* celebratory. If you don't already have his previous albums Clandestino and Esperanza, get those first.
The new project from Joe Pernice is just as pretty as you'd expect from the former frontman of both Scud Mountain Boys and the Pernice Brothers. With ample doses of Leonard Cohen, Joe Jackson, and Elvis Costello, this is more 'orchestrated' than any of Pernice's previous work, with warm strings adding fullness to the sound. Also features a delicate New Order cover: "Leave Me Alone".
We were floored when we first heard this four song ep that was dropped off by the band a little while ago. We just assumed they were from San Francisco and we were so stoked to have a new favorite band in town, but we kept looking for flyers with their name on it to go see them live, and kept asking local folks if they knew who they were. Well, we were off by a few thousand miles, as Chapter 24 actually reside in the UK and just happened to drop us a copy on a visit to the states. Luckily we tracked them down and got enough copies of this to list and damn if it's not some of the most urgent, intense, and melodic post-punk that we've heard in a long time. Think of Erase Errata, Wild Flag, Wire, and The Slits, all full of youthful energy and wide eyed possibility and you get close to the kind of terrain Chapter 24 so wonderfully explore. This immediately has us jumping up and down with fists in the air with sweat dripping down our bodies (not at work though of course!).�
Grab one of these fast as once this first batch sells out we won't be able to get more until mid-November when Chapter 24 make their way back to the States and San Francisco.
After being blown away by their awesome self released cd-r a few months back we were stoked to get the first slab of wax from this young, energetic post punk band out of the UK who are blasting our ears with such immediate and intensely satisfying sounds. These two new songs find the band getting tighter and their sound even punchier, without losing one bit of the infectious intensity that won us over on their cd-r.
Both songs display a wonderful ability to strip away all the fat and make sure that every single moment of the song packs a bright colorful punch. These jams make us bob our heads, and even jump up and down when no one is looking. It's also so refreshing to see C24 develop their chops the old fashion way, not relying on blog-hype, but actually touring non-stop, and you can get a feel for how invigorating it would be to see them live from these two killer tracks. Awesome!
It wasn't long ago that Cherry Red Records rescued Reading's shoegazing Chapterhouse from near obscurity by reissuing their first album. Now, they've gone and done it again with the band's markedly different sophomore effort Blood Music. Where as Whirlpool was a hybrid decidedly indebted to Spacemen 3 and bands like the Seeds, this album sees them learning and progressing, updating their sound, and moving into their own distinct sound. If the Cardigans had a male singer and made a record in the wake of the Stone Roses, this might be it. Basically, the first record was proto-shoegaze, and this, the second record, adopted some more distinctly pop leanings. If you missed out on them in the past, or you lost your original copy, you need this beautiful slab of '90s British catchiness in your life! Recommended.
Long overdue reissue of this shoegaze classic. Out of all the bands dubbed shoegazers in the UK in the late eighties, Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Ride, Slowdive, Swervedriver and especially My Bloody Valentine, for some reason, Chapterhouse never really received their due. Sure they sold some records, had a few hit singles, but no one spoke about Chapterhouse with the same hushed reverence as they did when name dropping Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine. Every single band since the nineties, with even the slightest hint of noisiness or spaciness never hesitates to reference MBV as a huge influence, but now that we're finally getting a chance to listen to Whirlpool again, it definitely reminds us how fucking great Chapterhouse were, and what a unique take they had on the whole spaced out bliss out shoegaze thing. Swervedriver may have been the heaviest, My Bloody Valentine the wildest, but Chapterhouse managed to be the most interesting, dipping their toes into both Stone Roses-y dance tracks, and blown out druggy psychedelia a la Swervedriver or MBV. In each instance the band made the sound their own.
The heavier tracks here, "Breather", "Treasure", "Guilt" are packed with dense squalls of heavily affected guitars, big swirls of droney ambience, all of the elements that defined the shoegazers, but Chapterhouse were much more subtle, the result sounding much more druggy and droney like Spacemen 3 (their sonic inspirations) than freaked out and wild like MBV. And when they chose to, like on "Pearl" or "Falling Down" they could whip up an ultra danceable groove, albeit still swathed in a good amount of guitar fuzz and blissy psychedelia. Either way, Chapterhouse at their core, were a pop band, and at the heart of each song was a pop song, a catchy hook, that would either get buried in a thick wash of blissy fuzz, or draped over some sort of funky groove. Either way, we love it!
This reissue includes the Whirlpool album, the Freefall ep, the Sunburst ep and the Pearl ep. Huge booklet with liner notes, band interviews, photos, original album and ep artwork and all of the lyrics printed for the first time!
Here's a very limited (to 500 copies) 10" from Texas trio Charalambides, whose delicate, ghostly guitar and voice meanderings get more and more so with each release. On Ana/Kata we hear long spaces of woozy guitars weaving in and over and between themselves, then ethereal female voices quietly add themselves to the proceedings... and the queasiness factor triples. Quietly squealing guitar adds to the haunted house effect. A fractured blissout record for the very experimental-lovin' readers of our list, the type who usually confine themselves to static, glitch, and noise.
- RealAudio clip: Kata
- RealAudio clip: Ana
Our friend Adam who runs the super cool Crucial Blast label, has, for over 6 years now, been quietly (and not so quietly) putting out some of the coolest shit around. From crusty Finnish metal to droning electronica to sparse folk to brutal power electronics. This new series of cd-r's, limited to 100 copies and nicely packaged in oversized DVD cases will only be available via Aquarius records (unless you get them directly from Crucial Blast). So don't blow it...
AQ faves Charalambides contribute what has to be their quietest and most minimal collection of tunes yet. The sound takes their minimalist psych-folk a step further, exploring spaces as much as the notes that seperate them, with Christina Carter's fragile croon even more ghostlike and ethereal. She seems to be making sounds, more than singing, gentle and haunting, rich but delicate. Tom Carter's guitar is equally spare, with the notes spread out, and pucked tentatively, sounding like a Fahey record played at 5 r.p.m. Distant melodies drift lazily as stray notes wander off and get lost in the foggy ambience. Quiet, and quite gorgeous.
- RealAudio clip: One
- RealAudio clip: Three
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Oooooh. Witchy.
Gorgeous double lp reissue of Charalambides' amazing 'Historic 6th Ward' record, until now only available on cd. And this reissue isn't just for vinyl lovers, as the cd is long out of print -and- this lp version adds 7 extra tracks not found on the cd. Charalambides play hazy, dreamy, spaced out acid-drone folk, with ethereal female vocals, using minimal instrumentation and lots
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Lovely Texas acid-folk-space trio (how's that for buzzwords?) who release records, tapes, and cds in small quantities that only serve to add to their allure, predictably enough. But they deserve it. Ethereal female vocals over pleasantly disturbing drone.
A remarkable precursor to the current fascination with all things acid-folk, Our Bed Is Green came out as a self-released 90 minute cassette back in 1992. Then a couple of years later after Charalambides earned considerable praise and adoration for the Market Street 2LP (which still ranks as their best work), the Charalambides duo of Tom and Christina Carter reissued Our Bed Is Green in a condensed version as a single cd on their Wholly Other label. Now as Kranky has undertaken a campaign to reissue the bulk of their early work, Our Bed Is Green sees the light of day once again, with all but the two covers songs featured from that cassette release. Within this sprawling set of minimally composed sketches and song fragments, the Charalambides conjure a drug-addled haze that settles gently upon their fuzz guitar psychedelic stupor, replications of early Americana folk, and post-Fahey improvisations. In their doped-up introversion, the Charalambides have always had a knack for rapturously free-falling moments rendered in slow-motion, and it's clear from Our Bed Is Green that they strongly developed this aesthetic from early on. Certainly fans of Six Organs of Admittance, Animal Collective, and the Skygreen Leopards would do well to check this out.
