Asthmatic Kitty, the label that brought us a bunch of early Sufjan Stevens releases as well as two dream-folk albums by the Castanets, has released another likemindedly quirky lovely cd by The Curtains starring Mr. Chris Cohen formerly of Deerhoof. Not at all surprisingly, the mildly tweaked elements of his old band definitely make their way into the pastel pop weave of The Curtains, but the overall sound is more straightforward fluttery retro '60s psych-pop with very heavy Beach Boys and Beatles influences. It's all super sweet and wistful with female vocals courtesy of Nedelle Torrisi (also of SF duo Nedelle And Thom). Half-Handed Cloud's John Ringhofer also lends (more than half) a musical hand. Cohen has the kind of irresistible boyish wonder and charm that few possess. It's almost like he exists in a Michel Gondry film, so many wonderful colors, state of the bedroom invention and endless wonder. There's nothing but puffy clouds floating in a bright blue sky when this one's playin'!
A beautifully rendered document of the early stages of this San Francisco trio. A posthumous release of sorts, considering the radical personnel changes since the recording of "Fast Talks". But alas, we can now enjoy the magic of what once was. Comparisons to Beefheart's Magic Band, The Shaggs or the reserved expansiveness of guitarists like Derek Bailey, Taku Sugimoto or Fred Frith certainly come to mind, though those likenesses are only fragments of the larger landscape. The duelling guitars of Chris Cohen and Trevor Shimizu weave into one another, not colliding or stepping on each others toes, but crafting a web in which the stumbling percussive rolls of drummer Jamie Peterson (ex-Saint Andre) are able to grasp onto. Peterson's unique style recalls the Magic Band's John "Drumbo" French, though with more reservation and a playful discretion. In fact most of the songs on "Fast Talks" are refreshing in their sheer simplicity and sense of discovery. You might be inclined to say "naive" upon first listen, as remnants of "outsider" artists such as The Shaggs can be traced through their arrangements, though these pieces are extremely well conceived, complex and strongly informed by restraint and the spaces in between. Several moments throughout the record even contain qualities which recall another SF avant-rock outfit -- Deerhoof -- whose guitarist John Dieterich, coincidentally, takes production controls here. Vinyl only, and gorgeously packaged as per the Thin Wrist standard of excellence.
Fresh from their split cd and tour with Japanese pop-psych shamblers Maher Shalal Hash Baz, The Curtains release their first full-length cd. On it, this Bay Area trio of synthesizers, guitars and drums make a precarious heap of quirksome dissonance... and it's really no wonder since its members are Chris Cohen, Andrew Maxwell, and Greg Saunier. These gents also make sounds with such groups as Deerhoof, Natural Dreamers and Open City. On Flybys, melodies are introduced and seemingly take root, only to have the notes scatter like a disturbed anthill. A tangles of plucked guitar strings. Woozy synthesized heaves. A tumbling snare drum. The three are joined on a number of tracks by their former Curtains comrades Jaime Peterson (electronics) and Trevor Shimizu (synthesizer and guitar). As the album progresses the tracks seem to teasingly approach a slightly more traditional song structure, but you'll find with The Curtains you're seldom on completely stable ground. 22 tracks in all with the longest one clocking in at 3 minutes and the shortest at sixteen seconds (most are around one to two minutes)!
Sometimes bedazzled, certainly bemused and maybe befuddled, that's where curious local art-rockers The Curtains keep the listener, one never knowing from track to track where the album is likely to lead. And there's a whole lotta tracks on here, like 23 of 'em! All share the The Curtains charming style of quirky, indie-rock confusion, that can be proggily grandiose one moment, innocent and simple the next. Faux-naive? Beefheart-complex? It's all good. The Curtains make their own rules, and we love 'em for it.
First album by British femme-fronted classical psych-prog rockers Curved Air. Sublime!
Possibly the most polished and "full" sounding album (of the several we carry) from San Francisco's beloved Beth Custer, the restless innovator who, whether as a solo artist or in her prolific past as part of Club Foot Orchestra and other intrepid musical
Treasured local composer Beth Custer has self-released another collection of her clarinet-led music. Along with the clarinets Ms Custer also wields the piano and the keyboard sampler, and she sings. The Tin Hat Trio and the Club Foot Quintet (both groups also local gems) make appearances, as do several other folks. This is wide-open music with no attitude and plenty of originality. Silences and single-instrument passages that are evocative as much for what they don't say as for what they do. Gritty noir tangos that wouldn't be out of place in a Jim Jarmusch film. The (very occasional) vocal parts don't do much for me but I'm sure they were entirely appropriate in the context of the dance pieces these tracks were originally composed for: What the Body Knows, Take/Place, Undertaking Harry, and The Maverick Strain, all performed by the Joe Goode Performance Group. Nice.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Now on vinyl! Here's what we said about the cd:
Justice, Digitalism, Crystal Castles. The list of contemporary indie-electro goes on on and on. And it's all at least slightly retro: disco, French house, video games, or whatever. But what we have to high five Australia's Cut Copy for is attempting to revive the orchestrated power-pop sounds of bands like Electric Light Orchestra! Take that, throw in a drum machine, maybe a few heavy post-production filters, and that's where they're at. Above and beyond anything else, and unlike some of their contemporaries, these guys seem to understand that they're essentially making pop music. Whereas projects like Justice sometimes rely too heavily on form rather than content, Cut Copy has their eyes on the songwriting prize. Much like British producer Richard X, they have a healthy and addictive affection for the '80s. Severed Heads, Tears for Fears, even maybe a little Roxette. Yeah! Don't come expecting a challenging musical experiment, or something as conceptual and cohesive. But if you can handle great pop tracks, just give in and let your feet do the dancing. Recommended.
Justice, Digitalism, Crystal Castles. The list of contemporary indie-electro goes on on and on. And it's all at least slightly retro: disco, French house, video games, or whatever. But what we have to high five Australia's Cut Copy for is attempting to revive the orchestrated power-pop sounds of bands like Electric Light Orchestra! Take that, throw in a drum machine, maybe a few heavy post-production filters, and that's where they're at. Above and beyond anything else, and unlike some of their contemporaries, these guys seem to understand that they're essentially making pop music. Whereas projects like Justice sometimes rely too heavily on form rather than content, Cut Copy has their eyes on the songwriting prize. Much like British producer Richard X, they have a healthy and addictive affection for the '80s. Severed Heads, Tears for Fears, even maybe a little Roxette. Yeah! Don't come expecting a challenging musical experiment, or something as conceptual and cohesive. But if you can handle great pop tracks, just give in and let your feet do the dancing. Recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The last album from Australia's Cut Copy, In Ghost Color, is without a doubt one of our most listened to pop records of the last several years. It proved to have such amazing legs and grew on us so much so that even when we look back at the initial review we wrote, we would change it to speak more to what a perfect offering of uplifting, ecstatic pop it truly is. Zonoscope keeps our full on love for Cut Copy going super strong, as this album further proves these guys as some of the most skilled and talented folks around at crafting infectious and memorable pop that sticks in your head and seeps into your skin like crazy!
They take the blueprints of the Hacienda sound (Happy Mondays, New Order, etc.) and flesh it out with such a crisp and focused delivery that definitely taps into what folks like M83 have been moving towards in recent years. With nods to OMD, Erasure, Tears For Fears, Pet Shop Boys, even Men At Work on "Take Me Over" and of course New Order, CC have found a way to merge the romantic and dance minded side of '80s pop music glory into a sound that is so totally modern and refreshing. You can also tell they have a HUGE appreciation for the dynamic epic/huge pop sound that folks like ELO, Queen, and Cheap Trick were carving out in the '70s and have figured out how to inject a modern sensibility into that classic pop prowess.
Listening to Cut Copy is like being shot up with a rush of adrenaline and endless energy. All you want to do is jump and dance and run and accomplish all the things you have your heart set on. Not many folks are able to truly inspire that reaction with their music. Zonoscope is proving to be the greatest pop record so far in 2011 and we have a feeling at the end of the year we will still be saying the same thing.
What happens when a middle aged, extreme noise musician suddenly gets all voodoo "drum circle" on us? Cut Hands is what happens. Ethno-forgery, not exactly, ethno-freakery more like it!
Let's say this up front, so there's no confusion: this Cut Hands disc is bloody awesome, and nobody here at AQ (except maybe Jim) is all that big of a Whitehouse fan, either. We mention that 'cause Cut Hands is the new project by William Bennett, the perverse genius (?) behind infamous '80s industrial noise terrorists Whitehouse, who are up there with Merzbow in the noise that annoys pantheon. We appreciate the extremity of Whitehouse, sure, but unlike Merzbow, never really enjoyed listening to 'em all that much (maybe that's the point). As a result, we really weren't aware of the extent to which, in recent years, William Bennett had been getting into this so-called "Afro Noise" bag of his, with some of his more recent Whitehouse albums (like 2003's Bird Seed, which contained a track called "Cut Hands Has The Solution") incorporating the use, and probably abuse, of authentic ethnic Central African instruments.
Although, we do remember when, in 1997, Bennett's label Susan Lawly put out an amazing compilation, now long out of print, called Extreme Music From Africa, that we totally loved. It featured a bunch of mysterious artists like Rorogwela, Vicious Teengirl, Electricity Featuring Fire Eater, and National Bird, that we'd never heard of before or since, doing tracks that somehow combined what sounded like genuine African tribal music with Whitehouse style noise... and was really quite listenable, too! We always half-suspected it might not have been on the up and up, that the bands weren't really from Africa, and were instead the work of Mr. Bennett and friends, and we'd still like it just as much anyway... Cut Hands certainly makes us further assume that might be the case, since our description of the sort of sounds found on Extreme Music From Africa would also describe this Cut Hands disc quite well: "Chanting and hand drums are buried in washes of hiss and white noise. Merzbow style blasts of crunchy feedback dissolve into tribal rhythms and explode again into shards of jagged buzz. Intense and aggressive and totally great."
In any event, Cut Hands is the next logical step in Bennett's "Afro Noise" obsession. While there is of course an electronic noise component to this, it almost takes a backseat to the rhythmic, almost machine-like intensity of the hand percussion. Bennett has apparently amassed quite a large collection of Congolese and Ghanaian percussion instruments, and he puts 'em to use here, 13 varied tracks of primal, polyrhythmic, electro-acoustic pulsations. Djembes and doundouns played with jackhammer precision, mixed with washes and waves of hiss and drone. Some tracks attack with feedback, others are more quietly sinister and even shimmeringly atmospheric. There's one track with vocals, declaiming something in what sounds like an African language, amidst divebombing distortion and shuddering glitch, while the rest are purely instrumental. And all it is frighteningly trance-inducing. It's kind of insane, kind of incredible. We like, a lot.
One of the few contemporary projects from the crate-digging local label Dark Entries, Cute Heels is the work of the Belgian electronic music Victor Lenis, with Spiritual being his first outing in a physical format. Squelchy, almost acid-like syncopations glide through each of these mid-tempo yet steroid-injected drum machine grooves that maintain a retro-garde pastiche of the Robert Gorl / Chrislo Haas productions of early D.A.F. / Liaisons Dangereuses and the darker moments of early Detroit techno, especially those Model 500 and Cybotron singles from the mid-'80s. Going through each of the tracks on Spiritual, one can pick out very specific homages in his jagged, industrially-minded productions. "Watch The Neon" and the title track cop the same angular, fetish-club funk that Front 242 barked on albums like Geometry and Official Version, where "Metal Disco" pops its limbs out of joint with the cyborg jitteriness of Chris & Cosey's Songs Of Love & Lust. While many of the Lenis' influences used these types of arrangements within the context of popsongs complete with vocals, lyrics, and ego, Spiritual is wholly instrumental leaving the electronics to speak through the blacklight and strobe-fired grids of rhythm and modulated step sequencing.
Not at all surprisingly this new band The Cute Lepers hail from garage pop rawk haven the Pacific Northwest. Why do we say that? Well, because they dish out super retro bubble power pop with all the genre's prerequisites - jangly electric guitar strumming, carefully picked out uncomplicated crunchy guitar solos, upbeat walkin' basslines, snappy drum beats, just as snappy handclaps, generous shakes of the tambourine, and girl group backing vocals. Remarkably faithful to both the original '60s and the late '80s revival sounds. It made us wanna dig out our old albums from Flop and Buzzcocks! They even use the appropriate fonts on the cover art! It's also maybe not at all surprising that this album has been released on Joan Jett's record label. In fact the first song sounds like some sort of bastard child of "Bad Reputation" and "Summertime Blues". Ultra snappy fun from start to finish!
It's kinda of ironic that what sounds to me like a fully authentic power pop record from the early '70s was actually made this year by young 'uns from Oakland! This is so pitch perfect Nuggets-y that even the purists amongst us will be impressed. The singer sound a li'l bit Tom Verlaine/Television, a li'l bit Ric Ocasek/Cars. The sweet poignancy of some of the tracks recalls "#1 Album"-era Big Star, when they rocked more than they wept. Recorded in Memphis with Greg Cartwright of the Oblivians. Recommended.
MPEG Download: "How Can I Get Through" [/audio/cutshowcaniget.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "How Can I Get Through" [/audio/cutshowcaniget.m3u]
The third cd long-player to come from these local sharp-dressed rock and roll revivalists about town, The Cuts. Yay! Every time we've seen 'em play, they've been great -- but just a little bit different from the last time. At one gig they'll come across all Cars-y, keyboards to the fore. The next, it's guitar-heavy rawkin' with an early '70s Alice Cooper vibe. Ya never know quite what to expect, except that they're always impressive and a real authentic rock n' roll good time. Just like this album. We dug albums one and two, but number three might be the best yet. It's like some amazing power pop band from the early '70s that you somehow never heard of, whose album just got reissued and makes you go, wow, they just don't make 'em like they used to. But they do, and The Cuts are doin' it. From Here On Out sees them honing their craft (and they ARE careful craftsmen, with so much attention to songwritiing, arrangement, and performance), doing their influences proud, from '60s garage to west coast ballroom psych to new wave pop. There's out-and-out guitar rock action here as well as lovely, pretty pop moves too, with vocal harmonies and all. Recommended.
Two Oakland bands on Birdman, here for your consideration. The Gris Gris just came out, The Cuts has been hanging out for a few months (and is a first time on cd reissue of their debut vinyl album anyway) but both get the thumbs up from the garage psych squad here at the store. Starting with The Cuts...well you can chalk another one up for the rock and roll revival. Yeah maybe the Stripes and the Strokes made the world safe for labels to release retro rockers like this, but that's fine 'cause a band like this shouldn't have to toil in obscurity anyway...plus we know our pal Dave who runs Birdman isn't about hopping on trends, he just puts out music he likes (which explains a few things). And The Cuts are the real deal too, with all kinda influences stirring in their pot...Zombies, Big Star, Television... A lot of you (and us) liked their 2nd album (first cd) 2 Over 10, which did the '70s power pop thing to perfection. Hearing this, first I thought hey weren't they supposed to be some sort of Cars-like proposition, with their keyboards and all?, but this sure harks back further than those New Romantic Waver whatevers, all the way back to the Electric Prunes!! Rockin' the joint with lotsa fuzz and great Nuggety songs/vox. Next up, The Gris Gris...
Record number two from the new project of Chris Spencer of late great NYC nineties noise rockers the Unsane, and while the sound of The Cutthroats 9 is maybe a bit less metal, it still retains much of the negative sonic energy of Unsane. Skull caving riffage, thick, corrosive bass buzz, pounding drums, and maybe most notably, some bad ass slide guitar (peep the cover photo, a close up of said slide guitar happening) which adds a definite distinctive sound, CT9's down tuned grooves laced with slippery melodies, the band locked into explosive churning heaviness, Spencer's slide guitar woven throughout, adding some surprising melody to the proceedings, a nice balance to the unhinged ferocity that oozes from pretty much every other part of the record, with Spencer's throaty bellow, cracking into more unhinged near-shriekiness on tracks like "Trouble", which sound essentially, like a groovier, more melodic Unsane, which is most definitely not a bad thing at all. The AmRep noise rock vibe is pretty huge too, hugely beholden to that label, and that era, fans of eighties and nineties pig fuck heaviness will dig this stuff like crazy, but then the band whip out a track like "Dissension", where the slide is right up front, and suddenly it almost sounds like a more metal Raging Slab, sort of, cuz really, the blood that adorned most of the Unsane records seems to still flow through Spencer's veins, and thus through his amp, dripping all over these jams as well, so fans of Spencer's old outfit will feel right at home, but really, any one whole likes it heavy and groovy, step right up...
Includes a download code too!
The last Cyann And Ben album, Spring, on Locust Music via French Label Gooom, had us all in a tizzy, with its dark and dreary, dreamy and gorgeous, Stereolab-ish psychedelic doom pop. Definitely one of our favorite records of recent memory. If anything, the new record takes all the sounds on the first record even further. It's darker, and dreamier, more melancholy and definitely more experimental. A sweetly sour, gorgously grand record of mini moperock epics. Mournful minor key piano spread sparsely over warbly organs and shimmering drones, loping rhythms and arpeggiated minor key guitar melodies, sweetly delicate acoustic guitars, backward riffs and random found snippets of dialogue, and occasional bursts of twentieth century atonal skronk all underscore both Cyann's and Ben's ethereal vocals. A darkpop masterpiece. Huge and overwhelmingly intense like Godspeed, lush and minimal like Sigur Ros. Imagine the fuzzed out, mesmerising Krautrock worship of Stereolab, but way more sinister and creepy and downright doomy, then mix in all sorts of electronic swoosh and swoon, as songs build into massive, unstoppable throbbing minor key dirges, channelling the freaked out space out tendencies of Hawkwind and Pink Floyd but filtered through a twee pop sensibility, before settling back into spare stretches of ambient tranquility. Lustrous and luminous, muted and mesmerising. So goddamn good it kills us.
Parisian quartet Cyann & Ben continue their delicate steps through the shadows and glints of sunlight along dewy earthen paths. This music is transportive, shimmering with hushed guitar picking and whispery distant vocals; all embraced by blankets of drone. It's sort of the aural equivalent of being in a half-sleep state while gazing at the sky through draped layers of gauze. Visions shift and melt. It's at once intimate, grand and spacious. So dark yet so blissful. The album progresses at a slow creep, but as it does so, tensions mount with increasingly insistent electric guitar squalls. A stormy peak is reached at the seventh song "Let It Play" at which point all is stripped down to just voice and piano for the next song "Somewhere In The Light Of Time". If you dug Spring and Happy Like An Autumn Tree, this will delight you to no end. Fans of Low, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mogwai, what are you waiting for? Wonderful!
Your second chance to get your hands on Cybotron's seminal proto-Detroit techno lp, Clear, has arrived. Lauded as one of the most anticipated vinyl reissues of 2013, they sold right off the assembly line, but we just managed to snag some more. This is one funky futuristic slab of electro that sounds as fresh now as Kraftwerk did back then, to the band's young members who also dug Detroit radio DJ The Electrifying Mojo, Afro-futurism, and science fiction. Perhaps noting members Juan "Model 500" Atkins and Richard "3070" Davis's affinity for P-Funk in the album's syncopations, Fantasy Records in Berkeley, California originally released it in 1983 under the title Enter. It was later reissued on cd in 1990 with a different track listing and the title changed to Clear, after the track on here with the percolating synth line that everyone from Missy Elliot to T.I. has sampled. It's as recognizable as Afrika Bambaata's "Planet Rock."
Prior to Enter/Clear's release, Atkins had issued many of the tracks as singles under his Model 500 moniker. A young musician just learning to use electronic synthesizers and sequencers, his obsession with Kraftwerk makes itself known on tracks "Clear" and "R-9", while tracks like "Cosmic Raindance" and "El Salvador" align more with Europen synth pop. All ironically depict the dystopic city of man-machines working on the line building America's cars, a future that was already being buried into the past as the late '70s recession and oil crisis lead to the decline in demand for U.S.-made autos. Though Atkins was familiar with the concept of DJ mixes, he aimed to make Cybotron a band with guitar solos (by Jon "Jon 5" Howsley) and traditional song structure. The overall effect is more electro, with a dash of new wave, than for-real techno (that comes later with 1984's "Techno City" or Derrick May's 1987 "Strings of Life," but we'll let you duke that one out amongst yourselves). Fair to say that Atkins would go on to develop Detroit's techno sound alongside Derrick Mays, and Cybotron's original output remains a classic blueprint of where the world of music was heading. This second reissue on vinyl best celebrates the spirit of the Detroit techno DJ scene.
Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find the brand new album Spirit Animal, by AQ faves Zombi, the horror soundtrack obsessed synth/math rock duo from Pittsburgh. So it's kind of perfect to list this too, a reissued, mostly instrumental, extremely electronic prog rock album from 1980 by Australia's Cybotron, a band who were basically the Zombi of their day, Down Under. Seriously, if the Zombi dudes are reading this, you're just the folks to whom we'd recommend this - you gotta hear it! Same goes for Zombi fans.
This Cybotron, who are not to be confused with the seminal Detroit electro act of the very same name, were a massively synth-crazed space rock act, making music full of sweeping sci-fi synth sounds, propulsive beats, vibratory pulsations, and krautrocky electronic atmospheres, eventually venturing into a proto New Wave synthpop zone too. Band leader Steve Maxwell Von Braund had spent some time in Europe in the early '70s, checking out the freak rock scene, going to see bands like Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Can and Amon Duul II, whilst buying crucial krautrock records as they came out, getting into stuff by Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel among others. Once back in Australia he soon formed Cybotron, which started off as an experimental electronics duo, but built up into a more prog rock oriented, symphonic sounding enterprise, reaching its peak on Implosion, their third and final album as a band. We'd love to hear their earlier ones, and also Von Braund's pre-Cybotron all-electronic solo record Monster Planet (which must be pretty cool if we can judge it by the cover reproduced in this cd's booklet).
The album under discussion, Implosion, definitely displays loads of influence from the '70s German kosmische krautrock artists that Von Braund and Co. enjoyed. The title track in particular, with its melodic, happy synth motifs frolicking amidst plodding, ominous rhythms and darker, dronier electronics, is VERY Cluster / Harmonia sounding. With more than a hint of John Carpenter too as it progresses, as does much of the rest of this album. Elsewhere it's easy to draw comparisons to the likes of Tangerine Dream and Novalis, as well as to contemporaneous French bands such as Heldon and Lard Free. "Black Devil's Triangle", at about 10 minutes long, is the album's most epic and mesmerizing space voyage, kind of like something by Klaus Schulze but with an added exotic, Eastern flavor to it, via squiggly synth melodies that at moments actually remind us of the music from the video game Rastan that we have here in the store. So good.
FYI, as a warning to the unyieldingly sax-adverse, there's some saxophone on the track "Encounter", which gives it more of a jazzy, '70s cop show groove. The sax returns again on "We'll Be Around", appearing along with handclaps and the rare instance of some vocoder processed chanting vocals. It's an oddly, enjoyably poppy finale to the Implosion album proper. They even released those two songs as a 7" single, which didn't exactly make the charts.
Things get perhaps a bit quirkier later in the disc, as we get into a slew of bonus tracks that's mostly material from a never-completed, more commercial follow-up to Implosion, tracks that are a bit more novelty-esque, like a New Wave take on Perry & Kingsley. We're also reminded of Art Of Noise - in fact, Cybotron do a cover of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" (also known to the video arcade generation as the theme to "Spy Hunter" game) which was also covered by the Art Of Noise later in the '80s if we recall correctly. Fun stuff if not exactly "kosmiche". However, the last bonus track is probably the HEAVIEST thing on here, a beefed-up "guitar version" of the already killer opening track "Eureka". Obscure krautrock reference that this track vaguely reminds us of: My Solid Ground.
As with most Aztec releases, this is a fairly swanky digpack with extensive liner notes, the cd booklet also fully illustrated with vintage photos and full-color graphics.
This disc has quickly become one of Andee and Allan's most played. After getting over the initial surprise of absolutely *loving* a super commercial MTV style heavy rock band, one can enjoy what is in our opinion a totally great record. Definitely hyper produced, too heavy to be totally mainstream "alternative", but too poppy to be a metal record, it just pushes all the right buttons. Sounding a bit like a more metallic Smashing Pumpkins, or a smoother, non-rap Rage Against the Machine, but with what sounds like GEDDY LEE FROM RUSH ON VOCALS!!. So great. Totally kick ass, totally catchy. It's a crying shame that these guys are major-label also-rans when they are as good or even better than the above mentioned bands. The sound, the look (hottie alt-hunk lead vocalist with dyed red hair and no shirt!) -- they should be huge. Must be the totally stupid album cover. Maybe a guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.
Long before the New Pornographers, there was another pop band we were all gaga for, called Zumpano, fronted by Carl Newman (of the New Pornos), but named for their drummer, Jason Zumpano. While the NP's went on to great fame and success, Zumpano stayed behind, doing his own idiosyncratic thing, playing in his solo piano pop combo Sparrows, various solo projects, playing in Destroyer and Loscil, and now you can add the oddly monikered The Cyrillic Typewriter to that list.
We could never figure out why Zumpano weren't more huge than they ended up being, we sorta liked them more than the NP's, we can only think, it was just a bit too weird, and that's sort of a hallmark of Zumpano's various projects, that no matter how poppy or traditional or whatever they are, they're also, sorta weird. Which we imagine is what makes pretty much everything he does so appealing. Thus we have the Cyrillic Typewriter, that was described to us by Zumpano as his new pop combo, which is it, but guess what, it's also pretty weird. A sort of lush, orchestral, baroque, experimental string and piano driven chamber pop. Or something. We found ourselves hearing hints of Destroyer, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Deerhunter, the Decemberists, Elephant Six, but also Cardinal, the Rollo Treadway, and of course the Zombies, Bee Gees, Beatles and the like. But again, twisted up a bit, and made a little bit weird!
The drums are restrained, often just a sort of martial snare, underneath lush pianos, and lovely strings, the vocal harmonies gorgeous too, but not typical at all, which is reflected by the band often slipping in atonal angular chords and melodies, there is lots of percussion too, the sound slipping from fifties pop to more sixties summery shimmer, from mournful ballads to bouncy sunshiney jangle. The strings make all the breaks sound more like chamber music, and add some gravitas to the proceedings, and unlike the bombast of Zumpano (the band), the sound here is much more measured, plenty of flutter and jangle and shuffle, a sort of avant retro orchestral dream pop that is definitely hitting the spot.
Fans of any of the above mentioned bands, or anyone into cool weird pop, this is for YOU.
LIMITED TO 175 COPIES, each one hand numbered, pressed on super thick vinyl with hand stamped labels, housed in super heavy jackets, each with a printed insert on nice heavy textured paper.
Since their The Ugly People Vs The Beautiful People album was so warmly received around these parts, we've scooped up a couple of earlier yet still quite recent releases. Glad to report that although this album in particular is laden with heavier more aggressive guitars the overall tone of the proceedings is just as splendid, lush and melancholic as T.U.P.V.T.B.P. The vocals are clearly the force behind the Czars music. The strong, warmly emotive performance of lead singer John Grant once again draws comparisons to John Denver and Mark Lanegan. An additional delight is the glorious male/female vocal interplay between Grant and guest vocalist Paula Frazer. Lovely!
As far as we can tell, we're pretty darn sure there are no Russian emperors present in this Denver, CO band's roster, but if it's any concession, there are five very talented musical fellows. On this their second full length, there's definite shades of the kaleidoscopic yet richly earthy scope of Pink Floyd as well as the lilting rock grandeur of Radiohead. All of that said though, in-store play has also drawn a couple of customer comparisons to the lush mellowness of Calexico. The lovely gentle horns, reverbed atmospheric pedal steel and piano surely don't hurt matters in that department. Lead vocalist John Grant has one of those voices that's so warm, deep and velvety, there's no question he could break your heart simply by singing his grocery list. That's what Cup thinks anyways. On the other hand, Jim thinks he sounds like John Denver! Cup thinks the only things remotely John Denver-ish are Paula Frazer's vocal harmonies on "Lullaby 6000" (more on that song in a bit). Imagine equal parts Thom Yorke, Rufus Wainwright, and Roy Orbison. Aaaah, that's a voice that packs quite a wallop! The Czars generally keep things wonderfully gentle and laidback - getting more so as the album progresses and allowing the listener to gradually sink into its gorgeous melancholia. Lots of guests added their vocal and instrumental two bits worth (and more). For instance, Ms Frazer sings on three of the twelve songs. Please do yourself a huge favor and give the abovementioned song "Lullaby 6000" your full attention! Absolutely breathtaking! Also appearing: Ron Miles, Rick Benjamin (of Elephant 6 Collective galore), Glen Taylor, Elin Palmer, and oh yes, and did we mention... Simon Raymonde (of Cocteau Twins) and Giles Hall who also co-produced. Originally released in the UK on Raymonde's Bella Union label, and now finding it's home on Manifesto. Don't your ears need this album?
Since their The Ugly People Vs The Beautiful People album was so warmly received around these parts, we've scooped up a couple of earlier yet still quite recent releases. This four-song ep has moments that are considerably more amped up and aggressive than both Before... But Longer, and T.U.P.V.T.B.P. with the addition of fuzzy synths and fiery guitars ("One Single Thing") to the usually lowkey twangy proceedings. Yet, the rich earthiness of John Grant's lilting voice and soothing piano shine through the wall of distortion. Hearing him break out of his characteristically solemn tone proves to make for a pretty great contrast.
Nearly forty years old and still as stunning as ever, Holger Czukay's first solo effort, Canaxis, gets a fully re-mastered second reissue. Recorded in 1968, just months after the formation of CAN, Czukay, a former student of Stockhausen, teamed up with producer Rolf Dammers to put these two nearly twenty minute pieces together, comprised solely of taped material culled from shortwave radio broadcasts. Czukay employed one of the first uses of "sampling" by putting loops of Medieval Choral music, Japanese Koto, Australian Aboriginal chanting, bells and most notably recordings of two anonymous Vietnamese singers together and subtly shifting and manipulating their tape speeds. What could have been a mere music concrete exercise, would become an engagingly disorientating meditation on what Brian Eno and Jon Hassell would later term "Fourth World" possibilities, harmonizing the organic and the mechanical of ethnic and western musical idioms yet tempered through Czukay's humanistic and idiosyncratic approach to his far-flung material. That it was illegally recorded at Stockhausen's studio just adds to the mystery and pedigree of this amazing recording (supposedly Czukay and Dammers, frustrated with the limitations of their own tape machines, broke into the Master's studio and recorded Canaxis in one night!). Newly repackaged in a 3 panel digipak with liner notes and the artwork of the original private pressing, and beautifully re-mastered by Czukay and Andreas Torkler. It features two bonus tracks (different than the one from the 1995 first reissue) from the CAN Solo Edition concerts in 1999. Highly Recommended!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Holger Czukay (ex-Can, y'know) starts out "La Luna" on the right foot with Zoviet France-like dark ambient electronic loops, but to my ears missteps with the inclusion of new ageist female vocal incantations (from his wife, U-She) intended to draw from the power of the universe. Those who liked the long, ambient track at the end of his last solo album should check this out, however. And it's not deliberately wacky like some of his earlier solo work.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Can's Czukay teams up with Dr. Walker (of Air Liquide) for two discs of live-recorded (on tour in the USA and in Cologne) "techno" jamming. This is a little better than we thought it would be, but it's still pretty bad. Thick rhythmic throbbing, utilizing dictaphone, shortwave radio, samplers, and an 808.
An impressive third album! The trio known as D. W. Holiday (yes, they're a band not an individual!) have been around since 1992. For well over a dozen years, they've been crafting their particular brew of darkly brooding spacey rock. Brings to mind a cross between the Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd and maybe Animal Collective too. A novel side note: there will soon (if not already) be two versions of this band -- one here in SF (the local roster currently includes former members of two other Bay Area bands, ex-Slow Poisoners drummer Chris and Ex-Bother bassist/guitarist Djuna) and one in Minneapolis -- with different lineups playing the same set of songs and everything. The reason? Band member Craig recently moved east, and simply didn't want to sever his longstanding musical ties.
Deutsch Amerikansiche Freundschaft (German American Friendship) or better known as D.A.F. were one of those key early electronic groups that provided the missing link between Cold Wave Minimalism and German Industrial Techno. They, themselves called it EBM or Electronic Body Music. Formed in 1977, out of weirdo art music outfit, Der Plan, D.A.F. started out as a five piece group pioneering the new wave of German Industrial music two years before Einsturzende Neubauten. But after their first two albums, the group quickly slimmed themselves down into the efficient two man sequencer team of Robert Gorl and Gabi Delgado. Playing up themes of Nazi fetishization and hardcore homosexual sex, with the spare and sometimes brutal production of krautrock pioneer, Conny Plank, D.A.F.'s songs were massive underground club hits in the early eighties. If anyone remembers John Dwyer's shortlived "fauxmosexual" industrial-electro joke band, Zeigenbock Kopf, he pretty much ripped D.A.F. off wholesale, if somewhat poorly! This "best of" covers the three records D.A.F. made for Virgin between 1980-1982, Alles Ist Gut, Gold Und Liebe, and Fur Immer, altogether ignoring their Industrial beginnings (sadly), as well as their later 2006 incarnation (thankfully). But it is this fertile period that D.A.F. became famous for, and it's probably a more consistent listen as a whole than if all periods of the group were represented. Fans of groups like Cold Cave, Cut Copy or any of the coldwave / post-punk comps from Belgium, France and Germany, should definitely check this out!
Ah-ha! The first D.A.F. record! And boy, was it quite a surprise to hear this one. D.A.F. began in 1978 as a post-krautrock outfit from Dusseldorf, with Robert Gorl, Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke, Wolfgang Spelmans, Michael Kemner, and Gabi Delgado originally calling themselves You; but with another German band snatching up the name and releasing the mighty fine album Electric Day in the same year, they decided upon Deutsch-Amerikanischen Freundschaft as the new name. A couple of band members were not all too pleased with Gabi Delgado's vocals and lyrics, and he was promptly sacked after their first attempt in the studio. Delgado returned to the band a year later when a few of his detractors left, and he became the iconic frontman for the stripped down D.A.F. with Robert Gorl. That incarnation of D.A.F. spawned an aggressive synth-punk sound that dominated the more abrasive side of new wave throughout the '80s; but this instrumental, motorik album is an entirely different beast. While electronics do make some interesting punctuations to the D.A.F. sound, they were fundamentally a damaged art-rock band with a rhythm section well versed in the classic Can, Neu!, and early Kraftwerk records from earlier in the decade, but they also exploded with slashing guitars, pummelling basslines, and an aggressive angularity that responded to the American contemporaries like DNA and Pere Ubu. Could this influence from American degenerate art-rock be an explanation for the name of the band? In any case, threads of this first D.A.F. record certainly look forward to the likes of Sonic Youth and Circle. The album is a collection of 22 untitled extracts from what seemed to be an exhausting recording session of constantly accelerating rhythmic marches with jagged-toothed guitar riffs that get pretty heavy and churning at times (even reminding us of instru-metallers Gore!), with plenty of interludes of amplifier feedback and spark-plug noise bursts. Part krautrock, part no-wave and new-wave, all rad. Not what we would have expected from their first album, but this is totally an excellent record!
Back in 2004 D.W. Holiday released their third album Technical Difficulties, Under The Influence. At that time the core members Craig Clarke and Daniel Crowell made it known that they were going to become a two city musical entity with full bands performing under the same name in SF and Minneapolis. Now two years later they're ambitions carry on into the recorded realm with the gorgeous, shimmering, magical Fish And Flying Creatures. D.W. Holiday blossoms luminous like a deep sea jellyfish, bringing together sumptuous orchestral pop with slightly twee male vocals (a la Flaming Lips or Sparklehorse) and atmospheric shoegazerly guitar washes (like Spiritualized or Jesus And Mary Chain). So haunting and lovely! One thing though, while we're all for the insertion of incongruous elements, the odd IDM track that pops up halfway through the album seemed like a rather jarring interruption. Ah, but it is a minor bump in what is for the most part a languidly swirling shadowy affair.
Please please do not be deterred (as we almost were) by the fact that this was released on Chicks On Speed's label. Although we're admittedly not the biggest fans of those gals' music, we've gotta give them props for good taste. Besides this sounds absolutely nothing like C.O.S.!
Ana Da Silva was one of the original members of the seminal post-punk female band The Raincoats, and this is her first solo release. We're happy to report that although this is quite different and considerably more delicate music than that of her old band, some of those Raincoats angularities still linger. The subtly eccentric minimal folk pop of The Lighthouse comes across as sounding not unlike a wonderful hybrid of Bjork, Young Marble Giants and maybe even some early Residents too.
This truly solo effort (she wrote, performed and produced it all herself) is comprised of vocal songs (standouts include "Running In The Rain" and the title track) and a beautiful instrumental titled "Hospital Window" (a video is included for this song too!) -- all of which she crafted on both acoustic and electronic soundmakers that flicker and flutter like moth wings near candlelight. If you've taken a liking to the recent avant-folk scene (Joanna Newsom, Vetiver, Devendra Banhart and many of the Jewelled Antler Collective) and/or find the abovementioned artists tickling your fancy, do yourself a favor and grab this now! Recommended!
Every now and again, it's always healthy to rock out to some good, old fashion, trashy, hard hitting, fuzz drenched garage rock. All the better if the band is trashy as heck, we're talkin' Stooges meets the Misfits, or something like that. Either way, Da Willys is a garage punk machine, too cool for school with a KILLER female vocalist who sounds remarkably like to Danzig. YES! Pretty straight-forward stuff, guitar driven songs full of drunken swagger and bad boy (or girl) aggression and raw energy. Exactly how we like it.
How can a country with a population as small as Australia produce so much heaviness?? Grey Daturas, Whitehorse, Fire Witch and now Dad They Broke Me, who just might be the heaviest of the bunch. Seriously blown out, black-hole-heavy doom dirge sludge, lurching, lumbering, pummeling, pounding, guitars thick and corrosive and black as pitch, tuned WAY down, the drums a crashing, rib cage rattling battery, the vocals, bile spewing demonic shrieks and guttural monstrous bellows, the songs dense and intricate, mathy and metal, proggy and convoluted, lots of stuttery start stop, bursts of feedback, churning chugging riffage, long stretches of rumbling buzz, think Eyehategod, Unsane, Khanate, Corrupted, Zeni Geva and the like, a glorious AmRep style noise rock / extreme doom / Southern sludge hybrid, but way more filthy and crusty and droned out and hypnotically brutal and bleak, with occasional bursts of murky muddy grind, and total tranced out downtuned dirgery, easily one of the meanest, heaviest discs in recent memory, and most definitely a new favorite amongst the aQ heavies.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, housed in a folded cardstock sleeve, with a sticker cover front and back, a printed insert, each one hand numbered.
