Judah Bauer takes a break from his role as axe slinger with Jon Spencer to once again indulge his 20 Miles desire to channel the gaunt ghosts of the Stones. Not a great departure from his work in the Blues Explosion, this is just kinda average blues rock that can't decide whether to fire things up or bring it dooown, and as a result falls flat at both. The songs on Keep It Coming just sound like those of a lackluster bar band coming up short in distinct personality, genuine grit, and hard-livin' attitude... some of the key ingredients for prime rockin' blues tunes.
Super limited release from the very cool Sewer Records in Sweden. This 3" cd-r deviates from Sewer's ususally harsh/noisy/brutal aesthetic and explores a dark shimmery, Eastern tinged soundscape, with creepy reverbed female vocals, warm dark rumbles, gentle ripples of swoosh and whoosh, and the occasional clang and clatter. Quite nice.
Do these guys have nothing to do but record a new record every week?! And how the hell do they manage to keep spitting out gems like this? Normally I'd be running around yelling 'Quality control!!!!!' at the top of my lungs, but damn if these boys don't keep coming through with the goods! You should all know the sound by now, but if you don't, here's a quick run down: dark, moody blissed out hip hop, with bizarre samples, gothy atmosphere, skittery spazzy drum loops, and a breathless, manic whiny white boy flow over the whole thing. And it's fucking great. A totally refreshing, original take on hip hop, with lyrical thoughtfulness that doesn't take away from the often venomous delivery, and some of the coolest most creative sounds we've heard in a long time. We've been singing the praises of Anticon since day one and this missive from Anticon producer/underdog Alias keeps the bar high and definitely makes him one of Anticon's shining stars. Also features AQ fave Dose One (from cLOUDEAD).
Between his two projects Loveliescrushing and Astrobrite, Scott Cortez has been dissecting My Bloody Valentine's epic swansong album "Loveless," and presenting two equally valid extrapolations upon that album. With Loveliescrushing, Cortez and Melissa Arpin-Henry have explored the fragile dreaminess of the MBV sound, while Astrobrite takes on the more explosive noise pop of that album with huge, blissed-out layers of controlled guitar distortion bent into lilting melodies and burying those archetypal Brit-pop constructions found in My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Filmstars, and Ride. While Loveliescrushing offered greater distance between themselves and My Bloody Valentine, Astrobrite's "8 Candy" is a deadringer for "Loveless," right down to the andrgynous vocals (provided all by Cortez). This is one of best of the "Loveless" mimics: as a result, it's nothing new. But, considering what he's paying homage to, Cortez's Astrobrite is pretty great.
The latest in Campbell Kneale's campaign to rule the world via an endless stream of releases, ALL OF THEM GREAT! This time it's a 30 minute piece recorded live in a Japanese temple, using contact mics, effects, dictaphone feedback, tapes, computer speakers and a PA. And this is austere and beautiful, we're talking Bernard Gunter territory here. Okay, maybe not that austere. A gorgeous hissy fuzzy soundscape of trickling water, gentle rainfall, and far away fog horns, that slowly bulids in intensity, while managing to remain murky and tranquil. Deep resonant drones slowly surface as do occasional clatters and clangs, and wheezing high end in the distance. Totally hypnotic and otherworldly. But we've come to expect nothing less.
Harsh and brutal analog electronic noise from Texas. And I do mean harsh and brutal. Think Merzbow, Masonna, that sort of thing. A thick 20 minute slab of NOISENOISENOISE. This is only for the strong. And we only have a few of these left as it was a limited run of 50, so first come first served!
Stunning new two track single from one half of, duh, Blectum From Blechdom. Fluttering, wondrous instumental synth lullabies that evoke the electronic work of Raymond Scott, the player piano compositions of Conlon Nancarrow, and even traces of Kurt Weill, but with a contemporary Schematic twist. Make sense? Remember a time in life when electronic synthesizers were accessible to the public and everyone had this crazy idea of what the year 2000 was going to be like? We were gonna live on the moon and live in capsules and wear spacesuits, we were preparing for the FUTURE! Well, I'm actually too young to remember, but these songs make me think about that kind of exhilarating bewilderment. Yeah, it's kinda like that...
Ohio punk rockers turned metalheads shed more of their punk rock skin and emerge a bright and bloody hard rockin' butterfly! Hard to tell if this is 'irony rock' or not, but it hardly matters. This is high kicking, devil sign, Budweiser tallboys, T-top camaros, 7-11 parking lot, ass kicking, drug gulping, friday night party metallic rock and roll. Think Hellacopters, Drunk Horse, Grand Funk Railroad, Motorhead and this time around: AC/DC, with the simple stomping 4/4 rhythms and the snake-y noodly riffs. Meathead metal 'n' roll that's mindless and fun as hell!!
Oval, Disc, Autechre... Lots of folks like that digital glitch stuff -- we do too -- but how 'bout some analog 'glitch'? Good old fashioned record crackle! AQ friend and fave sound artist Loren Chasse's new solo release, his first for Anomalous, totally delves into the realm of crackle, from records and beyond. For details, we may as well quote directly from the label's press release (since our own Allan wrote it!):
"The work of sonic artist/investigator Loren Chasse (solo, Thuja, id Battery, and various manifestations of the 'Jewelled Antler collective') usually involves the documentation and manipulation of minute sound events (rubbings, scrapings, clickings) involving found objects and natural phenomena, emphasizing unexpected perspectives and connections. Even when performing in the psychedelic improv outfit Thuja, his 'instruments' primarily consist of contact mics, a mixer, some rocks and twigs, and his imagination. Loren's processed field recordings are fragile and full of strange beauty and feeling.
"Hedge of Nerves is dedicated to a friend of Loren's who dearly loves the sound of record crackle as it mingles with the music from a record's grooves. He also enjoys the sound of record crackle alone, as when an LP cycles on its run-out groove. Compact disc reissues of early 20th century ethnic music 78s, or Portishead, or Philip Jeck: if it's got that crackle, he likes it! So, this friend asked Loren to make him a recording of vinyl surface noise only, one that he could DJ with, mixing with non-crackly musical sources, to create virtual scratchy records. For this reason, the idea was to avoid any obvious looping, but to make a continuous, unbroken and organic field of crackle. Thus inspired, however, the project soon turned into more than that, as Loren decided that it was more interesting to emulate the sound and texture of record crackle using other sources. The resulting cd indeed begins by utilizing sounds from a scratchy old 78 rpm disc (one recorded by Loren's grandfather in the 1930s at NBC Radio) but also explores more 'elemental' crackling sounds derived from fire and wind and water, from rustling branches, waves, and sand. Hedge of Nerves is dynamic, moving from loud crinkly-crackly storming sound-swarms to the sounds of a wilderness quietly bristling. It's a mesmerizing expanse of hiss and drone, buzz and click, with hints of melody (from his grandfather's 78). The originating idea of surface noise is ever-present, but upon closer examination that 'surface' proves quite deep, something within which the listener will become submerged, blissful and fascinated. Hedge of Nerves is a masterpiece -- just ask Loren's grateful crackle-loving friend, who files it with the best of Philip Jeck, Jonathan Coleclough, M. Behrens, Troum, and other masters of detailed drone constructions."
As you might have guessed, that friend of Loren's is of course our own Allan...and he really does love this disc!! (And he did manage to use an advance version of this to DJ with at the Beyond The Pale festival last year -- it goes really well with Bo Hansson, actually.) Even if you're usually wary of some avantgarde academic "experimental" sterility, try this out anyway, it's warm and organic and inviting in a way many glitchy, noisy things are not, like a bonfire on a desolate, foggy sea-shore.
While our #1 Clinic fan (Sadie) is out on the road, we're gonna try our best to give you the word on the new Clinic release in her absence. This 3-song EP's title track comes from their most recent full length Walking With Thee and is accompanied by two non-album tracks. "Circle I" is really speedy garage-punk number that's just over a minute and a half long (note: this song is not included on the vinyl version). Frantic buzzsaw guitar and Ade Blackburn's sly guy vocals. Think the Cramps meet the Violent Femmes meet Plastic Bertrand. The third song is called "Christmas" and shows the Clinic's gentler side - slowing things down considerably with its strolling pace kept in time by clip-clop woodblock. Happy holidays in May? Heck, why not?
Wow. Of the many recent Alice Coltrane reissues, I have to say this is the best one yet. Recorded in 1971, the record swells with beauty and emotion. It is serene not in a boring way, but in a sort of drone-y way, a state of suspended bliss and yearning that is colored with propulsive drumming courtesy Rashied Ali and Jack DeJohnette, tensely highpitched violin from Joan Kalisch, shimmering bells, and of course Alice's manic improv on the harp and ocean-lulling notes on the organ.
This record is so incredibly unbelievably beautiful, there's not a track that fails to attain superlative heights, and I highly recommend you get it, whether you're a beginner or an Alice fan from way back. Fans of modern experimental work like Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof! should also definitely check this out. Comes in a cd-sized mini gatefold sleeve (like an LP). Really well done!
Remember the old days, when if you sang about suicide, or even hinted at suicide in your songs, dipshit kids all over the world would listen to your records and kill themselves, and then their parents would sue you and ultimately lose since it's absurd to blame anyone but the kids or their parents. We always joked about having songs called 'You Suck, Give Up And Kill Yourself' or 'Nobody Likes You, You Might As Well Die' and stuff like that. But a lot sure has changed since the old days. Movies are more violent, TV is more nasty, music and especially lyrics are way more extreme. You have to go soooo much further to even seem the least bit shocking or offensive. This band just reminded me of how cool it would have been 'back then' to have a band called Commit Suicide. No beating around the bush, no backward masking, no subtle lyrics, just a big 'kill yourself' sort of band name! And in keeping with the misanthropic band name, Commit Suicide spew ugly gobs of grinding death metal, or metallic grindcore with lots of blazing guitars, chugging downtuned riffs, insane blast beats, stop start ultra complex songs and glass-gargling cookie monster vocals. Good stuff.
After over a decade of crafting a persona as the Gnostic court minstrel, David Tibet made a welcome return to the 'culture of nightmares' that ran through the first Current 93 records with the 1997 collabortive album / book with horror novelist Thomas Ligotti. The title itself comes from a recurring theme that Tibet brought to those early Current 93 recordings and also made their way into some Death In June albums. Cross-referencing various forms of apocalyptic literature, that unknown foreign town is the inception place for the apocalypse, with Tibet announcing the prophetic statement that "reaping time has come." While most apocalyptic literature (including the often misunderstood Book of Revelation) offers a vision of existential hope to a world shrouded in despair, Tibet's apocalyptic language concentrates on the descriptive details of how the world might end, instead of why the world is falling apart. Furthermore, these details dwell with the subjective viewpoint of a protagonist inflicted by madness, feverish hallucinations, wholly encompassing fear, and the awe-inspiring nature of terror; thus, the objective truth about the coming of the end of the world is left unanswered.
Thomas Ligotti, admittedly one of Tibet's favorite writers, has built an entire career on awakening the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft through ghastly tales of ancient demonic forces and hidden archons plotting against the rest of the world. For their collaboration "In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land," the two divided the labor evenly amongst their stonger talents with Ligotti providing a novella and Tibet's Current 93 producing the atmospheric soundtrack. Ligotti's contribution is easily the best that I've encountered of his work, favoring a Victorian sensibility of horror based not so much on the supernatural, but on the quiet whisperings of insanity. Current 93's soundtrack is a perfect fit with Ligotti's text, centered mostly upon the luminous bleak drones constructed by Current 93's line up of Tibet, Christoph Heemann, and Steven Stapleton. As a whole, the Current 93 soundtrack casts a gloomy tone, punctuated occasionally by razor-like slashes of treated noise and vocal interjections from various characters in the Ligotti text, read by Tibet, Andria Degens, and Shirley Collins. The return of Current 93's dark collage work previously found on Tibet's early masterpieces "Dogs Blood Rising" and "Nature Unveilled" is technically more refined than those rough hewn recordings, and are just as effective.
Originally, "In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land" was published as a hardbound book with an accompanying cd. This, the second edition, has been condensed down to a smaller CD-sized book. Other than that, there are no changes to what is easily one of the highlights to both artists' careers.
Not new recordings but a blast from the past from these black metal stalwarts. The Dark Funeral tracks date from 1994 and the Infernal tracks are from a couple years ago. And as with a lot of black metal, you'd be hard pressed to tell where DF's side stops and Infernal's starts, but I guess that's why they're sharing this split cd, a shared love of blazing, raw old school black metal. Oh, that a venomous hatred for Christianity and all of mankind. EVIL!
Psychedelic rock music inspired by and/or the cause of various psychological anomalies and psychic phenomena! Seriously. The Davis Redford Triad is the fully levitational drone-rock unit centered on the outer-mind guitar explorations of Steven Wray Lobdell (just don't call him Stevie Wray!). He's the bearded hippy with the brow, holding the dog in his lap, both of whom stare out at you from the back cover of this release. You may also know him from his other projects (Baseball Astrologer, Sufi Mind Game, and the lovely acoustic solo set "Automatic Writing By The Moon", also on Holy Mountain). Oh, and of course he's also the guitarist in Faust! Yes, although Lobdell's from the Pacific Northwest, he somehow ended up playing guitar with those re-united krautrockers on their last few albums. Faust of course wouldn't hire just any old long-hair to play guitar, and our favorite 'new Faust' album "Ravvivando" wouldn't have been nearly as excellent without him.
We really liked the Triad's second album, 2000's German-titled but Eastern-tinged "Ewige Blumenkraft" but really, *really* liked their much heavier first LP, "The Mystical Path Of The Number Eighty Six". Originally released in 1997 as a limited edition vinyl artifact, the Triad's debut album has long been in need of compact disc reissue, and at last here it is. This classic has now re-emerged in remixed and re-sequenced form, and includes a theremin track mysteriously missing from the LP version...
It's a really good late night listen, as Lobdell & co. conjur a kosmic kraut vibe via deep, droney instrumental psych jams on guitar and organ, with drums on one track and some electronics thrown in. But mostly guitar, lots of guitar! It's essentially a solo album. Fans of Kejiji Haino (another Faust collaborator) and his band Fushitsusha should dig this...though Fushitsusha can be a lot more abrasive. Lobdell's clouds of distortion are rather more 'round' and pleasant than the extremes of Haino's skree. Yet amid the Triad's transportational anthems you'll find some abrasive distorto-grind to be sure (right in the very loud, very dark first track actually). Other comparisons could be made to guitarists like Caspar Brotzman (at his most Hendrix-feeling), or Blue Cheer's Randy Holden (at his most abstract)...
Truly essential for anyone into heavy drone-psych guitar from Bardo Pond to Population II to Fushistsusha. Even if you have the original vinyl, you should check this cd out, as it's quite a bit different. And look for a new Triad release in the fall.
Kind of a holy grail for those who didn't pick up the long-out-of-print original version of this when it was first released, the 1991 debut cd by the Pacific Northwest's late great drone/doom masters Earth. Originals sell for big $$$ on eBay. And those who DO
Earth on this disc consisted of mastermind Dylan Carlson (guitar/vocals) plus Dave Harwell (bass) and Joe Preston (bass/percussion). Joe of course later went on to fame and fortune in the Melvins, and later, his one man band Thrones.
Oh, and this is the Earth record that one Kurt Cobain plays on as well, which I know confused and dismayed a lot of frat/jock guys back in the day!
Our pal Dave put this KILLER record out and we think he describes it the best:
"In the winter of 1967, a psychedelic-garage-punk band from Woodland Hills, California, arrived in Europe for what would be their first and last tour of the continent. On the strength of their hit single 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night,' the band was welcomed with open arms by European rock fans as well as British rock royalty - they smoked out with Hendrix, partied with Brian Jones and Keith Moon, and hung out in the studio with the Beatles - but were also subjected to harassment and ridicule over the fact that their homeland was at war in Vietnam. Yep, good times, good times... Twenty days and six countries later it was all over. Luckily, on the last stop of the tour someone pushed the record button and this artifact is the result.
"Stockholm '67 finds the Electric Prunes at the height of the powers. Some ninnies have griped that the 'Prunes were nothing more than a psychedelic one-hit wonder, and a studio project at best. This performance burns the criticism to the ground. Over-amplified and fuzzed to the max, the 'Prunes here are explosive, noisy and wild. This recording proves that the Electric Prunes deserve to be ranked alongside the very best bands of their era."
If you've still got a lil' soft spot in your heart for the energetic, bubblegum-snappin' new wave sparkplugs like Josie Cotton or Kim Wilde, you don't wanna miss the Epoxies from Portland, OR. They are a bazooka blast of '80s good times. Brightly hued, skinny-tied, stripe-y legged, duct-tape accessorized and kooky pseudonymed. So very John Hughes teen movie soundtrack perfect, you can almost imagine them rockin' out a version of Karla DeVito's Breakfast Club hit "We Are Not Alone". No, they're not bringing anything new to the table, but they certainly write ultra-catchy, snappy tunes. Super earnest, enthusiastic and a bit geeky, it's as if a time machine plucked them right out of '85. Full of punchy-crunchy guitar, squidgy-weeny keyboards and sorta-yodelled oh-eee-oh-eee-oh backing vocals. Lead singer Roxy Epoxy possesses such the perfect pipes to capture the poppy, punky spirit - running from Dale Bozzio's hiccup-squeak to Ms Wilde's more throaty delivery - that we can forgive the somewhat off-kilter boy vocals of keyboardist Fritz M. Static. Heck, if the Muffs hadn't already beat them to it, they'd probably do a bang-up job covering "Kids In America". C'mon, can't ya feel that ol' herky jerk pogo dance a-twitchin' in your bones? Don't deny it. Join me on this one!
If the names Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, and Joe Ely mean anything to you, then heads up. The three respected singer songwriters came together in the early '70s, in Lubbock TX, and made a completely underrecognized record as The Flatlanders. It was incandescently glowing country music with a twang, a musical saw, and the pure, otherwordly voice of Jimmie Dale Gilmore. In the years hence all three musicians have made names for themselves as solo artists with cult followings, and for those of us who hadn't heard them before 1990, that year saw a reissue of The Flatlanders album on disc, with extra tracks, that turned a lot of folks on to the Lubbock sound. If you don't already have that amazing first Flatlanders album, with its classic, breathtakingly gorgeous lead track "Dallas", then get that first. In fact, get it now... you'll be glad!
Besides a couple sporadic appearances in the ensuing years (a track for "The Horse Whisperer" soundtrack, a live reunion concert, etc), this disc is the first time in 20 years that the three guys have come together to write songs and record a brand new album. It is very nice, altho' not quite as good as what they did in the '70s (maybe that's cos I like '70s country a lot more than '02 country in general. Ahem.) Anyway, 12 of the 14 songs represented here were collectively written by the three, plus there's a Hancock-penned song and the lead off track is by Utah Phillips (I think it's the best on the whole album). The personalities of the three musicians are a bit more distinct than on the '73 record. The legend is back. Enjoy.
The long awaited return of the mighty Floor! What's it been? 5 years? 6 years? Either way it's been too long! These masters of sludge kick out the jams, slow motion style, ala Eyehategod or Grief, with huge pregnant pauses, crushed flat by downtuned riffs and buliding momentum until these bursts of sludge coalescee into a crushing dirge. A great song, maybe one of their best, but boy it's a little brief. Hope there's more where that came from. The B side is by a band called Dove, who we had never heard of before, but they do the sludgy metallic punk thing too, musically in the same ballpark but the vocals tend to get a little grating. Worth it just for the Floor track!
Fluxus mainstay and relative unknown until this recent spate of reissues, Flynt has dabbled in the supreme drone. explored hillbilly country and now on this reissue explores the 'raga' and traditional Indian music, but with his own bizarre twist. The opening track is a mutated version of the traditional Marines Hymn sung in a made up 'Hindustani' style, accompanied on simple acoustic guitar strums, creating a static almost drone. Tracks 2 through 5, titled Central Park Transverse Vocal #1-#4, are short sharp bursts (between 00:15 and 1:30) of wild howling and bizarre vocalising. The title track, Raga Electric, is a faux Hindustani raga, with droning un-tuned guitars and wild howling, supposedly recorded only hours after seeing Pandit Pran Nath perform. It actually sounds pretty great until the vocals, which become grating almost immediatly. But it's still quite fascinating. The final track is Flynt playing the alto sax, an instrument he had never played, and never played again after this recording. Wild skronking and high pitched shrieks and whistles. Thirteen minutes of skreeeeeeeeeeee that definitely tests the endurance of your eardrums.
Following the digital obfuscation of public domain recordings found on his "Frequency Lib" album, Stephan Mathieu presents his "Edits" series, dramatic remixes of his contemporaries' work under the Full Swing moniker. Originally, these edits of Laub, Kit Clayton, Antenne, Autopoesies, Raumgestaltung Eins, Ekkehard Ehlers, Monolake, Yo La Tengo (!), and Akira Rabelais were released as a series of 10" on Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork label, and now have been collected conveniently on one CD. What is immediately striking about this album is how strong and how unique Mathieu's signature sound is becoming. While the archetypal application of laptop DSP synthesis ends up tainted by antiseptic, clinical, or cold tones, Mathieu manages to wrap all of his digital pixelations in a dreamy, warmly crackling, and wholly inviting atmosphere, not unlike the beloved Aphex Twin album "Selected Ambient Works Vol II."
For the Laub remix, Mathieu centers his recontextualization around one of Laub's lilting synth melodies, which slowly loops through flickering wisps of static, hushed drones, and occasional vocal interjections from Antye Greie-Fuchs, whose Bjorkish voice collapses pixel by pixel. For both Monolake and Kit Clayton, Mathieu re-arranges the original Chain Reaction pulse into deep low end fluctuations, amidst fractilized clatter. The work of Raungestaltung Eins has been stripped down to the root frequencies, sounding like a downpitched morse code transmission, with hyper-pointillistic surface noise crackle and time-stretched drones. Of all of the remixes, the Akira Rabelais reworking of a Carte piano study is the least deconstructed, by overdubbing subtle modulations of Rabelais shimmer and vibrato into a beautifully spun web of spindly tonalities.
While Mathieu's work may hint at the discourses of ownership in a digital landscape since he has chosen to develop his sound almost exclusively through pre-existing work, his music ranks way up at the top the increasingly prolific laptop community alongside Fennesz, Carsten Nicolai, and Stilluppsteypa. "Edits" will undoubtedly rank as one of the best electronic record of 2002.
Second record of silly tech-house madness from Mr. Atom Heart (aka Senor Coconut, Los Samplers, etc.). Like Matmos on speed, and even more so like Drew Daniels' The Soft Pink Truth. House rhythms and diva vocalisations are sliced, diced and restructured into a hiccuping tizzy.
Do the names Kid 606, V/VM, Wobbly, etc. mean anything to you? If you're into the hyperspastic plunderfucking of contemporary pop music that has been quite the rage lately, then chances are you're likely to want to check this out. But to be completely honest, this record brings absolutely nothing new or interesting to the table. Sure it's good for a laugh and might provoke a grin or make you cringe, but if you've got a Dr. Sample and a Kaoss Pad, no doubt you can do this too. Plus it's more fun to fuck with other people's music than it is to have to sit through someone else having all the fun. The victims? The usual Top 40 slop just waiting to be slaughtered: 2Unlimited, Jackson 5, Technotronic, Jay Z, Whitney Houston, New Kids On The Block, even the Vengaboys for a split second (it's that sound that's on every one of their songs)... Is that the Puppies I hear, or is it Kris Kross? Most embarrassing is just how much I can recognize. Can't help but think of the film Bring It On when I hear "Get Ready For This". Running that track through loads of effects can't save it from being the most hideous song EVER. Sure, there's probably a lot more interesting things going on with the assemblage and rejuxtapositioning of the sampled works. But the undeniable overusage of FX makes this record sound old fast. Maybe Korg should give a free copy of this with every purchase of a Kaoss Pad: it demonstrates all the fun and cool things it does, but people might think twice before constructing a whole record out of that moronic pleasure.
Another in a long line of retarded metal records we absolutely love. It's getting a little ridiculous. At this point it's impossible for me to tell if something sucks, or if it's so ridiculous or so bad that it's absolutely genius. Allan doesn't really like this so much because he thinks it's a joke, but I prefer to believe that they are serious. DEADLY SERIOUS. Primitive, simple buzzing black metal in the vein of Bathory, Darkthrone, Beherit, but they have three things going for them.
They are called Goat Thrower.
The two band members are named The Mad Arab and Sabbatic Goat and are pictured on the cover in perfect HEAVY METAL magazine fantasy art.
And most importantly...
The vocals sound like the Chipmunks, or like they've been sucking down helium or something. Ridiculous chattering high pitched jabbering and wailing. So ridiculous it's inspired.
Released in the USA as "Together" and in Italy as "Amo Non Amo", this soundtrack to the film starring Terence Stamp and Jacqueline Bisset was originally scored by Burt Bacharach (now that I'd like to hear!) For the Italian version Goblin, masters of horror film soundtracks, were commissioned. Yikes. Goblin doing a romantic comedy score in 1979 is not my favorite Goblin style by a long shot. A lot of Guitar ballads and soft numbers, very anonymous and bland. I just love when Goblin is scary and thrilling and this has none of that. Not recommended unless you're a Goblin completist.
I am so so so in love with this record! (I'm Windy.) If you don't have any Goblin records then you want to forgo this temporarily (it's just not typical of their material) and get Suspiria first. But if you already have at least one Goblin album, then get this one now. Of course, at first you had to be a little trepidacious about Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark, released in 1978, for the following reasons: [1] it's one of only two Goblin albums that weren't commissioned as soundtracks (the other being Roller), and [2] it's also supposedly their only album with *vocals*. Coulda crashed and burned if you ask me, but it turns out this album is awesome and the vocals just send it over the top! Massimo Morante's voice is dramatic and urgent yet at the very same time super melodic. And it sort of makes sense that without filmic visuals to provide visible stimulation, the vocals provide just the right amount of narrative "human" element. The songs here are so melodic and hook-filled, with tremendously beautiful minor-key climaxes that really satisfy. So great!
Comes with mpeg footage of the band (in 2001) playing music in the same Cinevox studio where they'd always recorded, and also there's a rare interview where they reveal that much of Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark is about saying no to drugs.
Contemporary improvised 'free' jazz from this young-ish group. Recorded live in various venues throughout the midwest, the Gold Sparkle band take the wildest sounds of NY's downtown scene and imbue them with Ayler-ish free-bop glee. Reminds me of Sixties ESP jazz mixed with some of todays mainstays, David S. Ware, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Spy Vs. Spy. The first track is a killer, sputtering stuttering squealing structureless mayhem. Drums way up in the mix, melodies batted wildly back and forth. Nice. Once in a while the bottom seems to drop out, but they recover deftly and quickly. The record winds up with the almost half hour final track, a gorgeous funereal free jazz dirge, that builds and builds into a pounding orgiastic tribal workout. Pretty cool.
Maybe David Grubbs thinks that if he can release enough solo albums record stores will be forced to give him his very own bin card, thus increasing his credibility, thereby generating album sales. It's sort of the indie rock version of Casablanca records when they took to manufacturing 500,000 copies of initial record pressings so they could say they were "gold". I guess it works sometimes. If you tell someone that an album is a best seller they just might buy it. Likewise, I suppose if Mr Grubbs can get an extensive enough back catalog he can drag his ass out of the Bastro / Gastr Del Sol bins and acquire some street cred as a solo artist. If O'Rourke can do it, why can't he? And he almost gets it. Almost. At first 'Rickets & Scurvy' sounds like an attempt at emulating the Red House Painters, but what's that? It sounds like David is grasping at straws to find a melody. Maybe he's doing his best at producing obtuse melodic passages in an effort to come off as the intellectual post 20th century songwriter. I can almost see him in a coffee shop with a soul patch and horn rimmed glasses playing to quietly nodding fans. No, he'll have to cut the pretentious crap from his act before we can move him out of our Gastr Del Sol section. Rickets and scurvy are things to be avoided, so eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, get outside as much as possible and avoid David Grubbs. Although, to be fair (us be fair to David Grubbs? it might be too late now) we should mention that fans of Gastr's "Camofleur" or "Upgrade" might want to give this a chance despite our criticism, and as well, Matmos-spotters should note the presence of those San Francisco electronica loons on several tracks here.
Guilty Connector is Tokyo's Kohei "Fast" Nakagawa, the one-man goliath of jet engine sonics. Not since Merzbow's "Rainbow Electronics" have you witnessed sheer power and unrelenting force. Remember the first time you put on Monde Bruits? If you miss the Golden Years of noise (circa 1991-1996), this'll certainly take you back...
Japan's one man, harsh electronic,metal machine wrecking crew returns with a 3" cd of 'covers', of Black Sabbath's 'Symptom Of The Universe' and the Ramones' 'Blitzkrieg Bop.' And while Kohei The Fast, the man behind GC, does play actual guitar, the bulk of his sound is made up of "UTSU electronics" and field recordings. You get a glimpse of those classic riffs before they are thrown melody first into the tree shredder, and what comes out the other side is a ear shredding, brain rattling, bone breaking wall of shrieking feedback, buzzing instrument hum and an avalance of white/pink noise. Japanoise fanatics are gonna need this!
"Monochrome Rust" -- which completes the ideas found on Gunter's "Monochrome White" double disc set -- finds Gunter returning to the space of near inaudibility as previously explored on his earlier work in "Details Agrandis" and "Un Peu De Neige Salie." I say near inaudibily, as Gunter has constructed this piece to maintain a consistency through the incredibly tiny crackling of digital shimmer and erratic high end warbling; but at normal listening levels, it is so quiet as to barely assert itself above the hard drive from the computer I'm using to write this review. When the drive powers down every couple of minutes and the sounds of "Monochrome Rust" are left to situate themselves against the background of Valencia Street road noise, this chorus of digital chirps is incredibly complex, building subtle repetitions and orchestrating various swells in density.
Gunter pairs "Monochome Rust" with "Differntial," an equally ephemeral construction that ripples with a vaguely noxious tonal frequency amidst the delicate digital clattering. I'm still much more of a fan of Gunter's recent "Crossing The River," but this is much more interesting than the majority of the Microsound encampment.
There's so many reasons to love this record. Here's two: (1) it's about the Lord of the Rings! and (2) it's a beautiful, timeless album of psychedelic instrumental music worth listening to even if you don't know Gandalf from Frodo. So lovely. It's a big fave of most of us here at AQ. (Oh, a third reason would be that it was the first release on Sweden's Silence label, and sold quite well, helping them bring the world such essential psych as International Harvester and Algarnas Tradgard later on!)
Previously we've stocked the One Way label version of this, but now, no doubt thanks to the success of the LOTR movie, there's a newly remastered edition on Virgin that's got not only nicer packaging but also a previously unreleased bonus track! No information is given about that over eight minute long bonus track, but it's called "Early Sketches From Middle Earth" and sounds like a demo of themes later used on the album proper. This is what we wrote about the disc before:
Many of you already know and love Bjorn Olsson's atmospheric "Instrumentalmusik" cd which Omplatten released a couple years ago. What you may not know -- we didn't -- is that Olsson's album was essentially an homage to the work of fellow Swede, '70s prog/jazz/psych keyboardist Bo Hansson, and specifically his fantastic 1970 album "Sagan Om Ringen" or "The Lord of the Rings" (itself an homage to Tolkien's trilogy). Bo Hansson, together with a group of three other musicians -- percussion, saxophone & flute -- make the music. Bo plays organ along with guitar, bass and moog. The tracks, all instrumental, are lovely atmospheric numbers, reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, or similar kosmiche krautrock of the era. The album doesn't necessarily make you think of hobbits and orcs, there's no overt "fantasy/medieval" themes or anything (it's not like German pomp metal band Blind Guardian's version of the Silmarillion!). But it does capture the otherworldly, pastoral feel of Tolkien's work. Indeed, it would be appropriate to call this album magical...whether you're a Tolkien fan or not you should check it out! Recommended.
It's just too bad that Peter Jackson didn't use any of this music in his otherwise amazing LOTR film adaption! Now if only they'd reissue Hansson's "Watership Down" album as well...
Eight new weighty sonic slabs from San Francisco's premier stoner metal outfit, High On Fire (fronted by Matt Pike, formerly of Bay Area doom legends Sleep). Yes, this is HoF's brand new second album, following hard on the heels of the Tee Pee reissue of their debut "The Art of Self Defense". We know that anticipation has been running high for this new disc -- and to our ears, it's no disappointment, full of bludgeoning guitar riffery, ragged vox and relentless drum-pound as per our expectations. As heavy as Matt's old band, but not so slow -- their black as pitch, tar pit dirges are cranked up faster into violent headbanging territory. Sludgey rock n' roll that's perfect bloody battle music for the axe-wielding barbaric warrior depicted on the album's front cover. Fed on juicy steaks of Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Melvins, and Eyehategod beef, "Surrounded By Thieves" is a ravening brute that means to trample you underfoot, but if you're a fan of all things heavy instead of running away, you'll let it give you a big senses-numbing, trance-inducing bear hug.
Moody vocals, arpeggiated guitar, stumbling cut up percussion. Hood's newest EP is all of that and more (the more being a video of the title track that you can watch on your computer.) Post-rock done right, and light. The guitarwork reminds me of fellow postrockers Sonna, and the vocals are just depressing in the best way.
A small collection of compositions written in the late nineties by Hosokawa. Influenced by Cage and the significance of silence in modern composition as well as the slowly building, meditative characteristics of Takemitsu, Hosokawa applied this wisdom to the Western standards of composition and instrumentation. "Koto-Uta" is a stripped down piece for voice and Koto. Lyrical and mysterious, beautiful as it is perplexing. "Voyage I" for violin and ensemble painstakingly takes its time to find a melody, resigning itself to settle on the exploration of space and texture. Minimalist passages hover in suspension, patiently awaiting the monumental crecendos that eventually engulf the piece. Likewise, the suspenseful and restrained "Konzert F�r Saxophon und Orchester" pairs pained, sweltering and erratic saxophone against an anxiety-ridden orchestra, swelling up with anticipation and longing for a culmination, unfulfilled. A wonderful introduction to an underdocumented contemporary composer who we're hoping to hear more of.
Tag team grind metal battle. Arizona versus New Hampshire. Arizona's entry is Structure Of Lies, blasting grind with dual lead vocals, screech and bellow, but with cool stretched out parts where a riff is just punded over and over and over, as well as some weirdly melodic breakdowns. From New Hampshire comes Iranach, who have one of the most insanely gurgling cookie monster vocalist ever. Sounds like he's burping the alphabet or something. It's cool though. Creepy and bizarre. The music is super compressed metallic grinding, double kick, gurgling almost-death metal, with some strangely out of place acoustic-y bits.
Another clattery automated masterpiece from composer Joe Jones. It's hard to gather any information from the liner-note-less cd booklet or from the almost information-less website (what info there is, is in German) but what we can tell you, is Jones creates automated, often solar powered machines that beat drums, hit cymbals, strum autoharps and create mysterious, noisy robot jams, simple thumping caveman beats and cacophonous metallic clangs meander nervously over a continuous high end whir. Sort of like an android No Neck Blues Band warming up while Skullflower rehearses down the hall. Nice.
Yet another amazing band from the metal mecca of Finland. Bearing no small sonic resemblance to their countrymen and AQ faves Children Of Bodom, Kalmah take the melodic death metal of In Flames and Dark Tranquility, add ridiculously shredding guitar leads and fleet fingered keyboards and end up with a melodic metal masterpiece. Pounding double kick drums underpin the raging riffs, but melodies abound with Iron Maidenish harmony guitars and super melodic guitar/keyboard solos. My housemate who is a sucker for all things melodic death metal heard this and immediately said 'This is the best record ever.' While he says that about LOTS of records, you still get the idea. While the way-up-in-the-mix keyboards might deter some of you 'true' metalheads, the metal is more than heavy enough to balance it out. Includes a Megadeth cover too!
On March 14, 1992, Leif Elggren and CM von Hausswolff proclaimed the existence of the Kingdom of Elgaland / Vargaland, by annexing and occupying all of the border areas between all the countries of the earth, all of the areas up to a width of 10 nautical miles existing outside all countries territorial waters, and the mental / perceptive territories including, but not limited to the Hypnagogic State, the Escapist Territory, and the Virtual Room. Elggren and von Hausswolff have even gone so far as to issue passports to their citizens, draft a constitution, and design any number of governmental signifiers (currency, stamps, a national flag, and even a national anthem). This Kingdom is obviously not striving to attain any political presence within the world's power market, but is interested in channelling the metaphysical principles from Joseph Beuys in this investigation of how utterances of power are communicated from one individual to another.
During the past decade, hundreds of people have become citizens of Elgaland / Vargaland, and this album is a sort of who's who of the Kingdom's citizenship, featuring Mika Vainio, BJ Nilsen (Hazard), Ulf Bilting, Ryoji Ikeda, John Duncan, Mats Gustafsson, Chris Watson, People Like Us, Jim O'Rourke, Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert (Wire), Fennesz, Oren Ambarchi, and many more. The 48 tracks on this double disc set offer an incredibly wide range of interpretations of the Kingdom: some quite silly, others very ominous; some do relate to the Kingdom of Elgaland / Vargaland, others don't. As a result it's not the most cohesive of albums, but both Allan and Jim fully support the Kingdom of Elgaland / Vargaland. So there.
People seem to get really worked up about this band, and it's kind of easy to see why. They're super heavy and noisy post rock with just enough metal to balance out the meandering noodly parts. Recorded loud and in your face, with drums all over the place, LOUD guitars and the vocals buried in the mix. Imagine Unwound, A Minor Forest, Bikini Kill and Shellac all mixed up with the results coming out sounding a little like the Oxes or Hella (or some other indie-metal combo) doing Le Tigre covers. Cool.
I'll be honest. No one here likes this as much as me (Andee). BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE, TRUST ME THIS TIME! I WILL NOT LEAD YOU ASTRAY! Most fans of crank call comedy should already have the first few volumes of the brilliant (-ly insipid) Longmont Potion Castle. How can you not love a guy who gets off on torturing the clerks at radio shack and is obsessed with Tandy products?! A guy who spits out the most retarded and baffling products/names/etc: gugliata, voltor, leprechanjulius!! And on a previous cd, he continually harassed a foul mouthed cantakerous old man, but by the end of the disc, they were buddies, with the old man asking how the tape was going and LPC promising to send him a copy. FUCKING HEARTWARMING! How often do you get that on a crank call record?!!? Stupid and silly and once in a while totally inspired. This was constantly in the stereo on all of our road trips and so much Longmmont verbiage became vernacular for me and all of my San Diego friends. So buy this or I'll start talkin' whip, and may even bring a tennis racket toyaleyup!!!
We've been trying to get enough of these to list for a while now. Our friend Drewcifer swore up and down that when he heard this he knew we (and you, the AQ customers) would love it. And man, was he right. Lykathea Aflame is another band from the Czech Republic (following AQ faves Root among others) and they are pretty difficult to describe. They are definitely metal. And they are definitely grindcore at points. But it's the way they put it all together and what they do with it. The record starts with crazy double kick drums and guitars playing ominous Eastern melodies, while every couple of measures a furious blast beat interrupts, and it becomes this sort of triumphant march, almost like a metal theme to Star Wars or something. And this continues over the course of the record, with LA flitting back and forth between, totally melodic metal, crushing monochromatic grind, weird gothy bits with bellowed male vocals, to almost classical interludes. But they always return to the blast. Half tempo grinding riffage, then blast, a melodic seasick waltz, then blast, an almost ballady bit with acoustic guitar and a stick-in-your-head melody, then back to the blast. Everyone we've played this for has freaked out and LOVED it. Listen to the sound samples, they say more than I ever could.
When Robert Hampson began exploring "drumless space" through his digitally tricked-out guitarscapes under the guise of Main back in the early '90s, those initial records ("Motion Pool" in particular) were compelling albums of circular hypno-rock riffs spiralling through bleak, ominous drones. On one hand, Main had signified the birth of post-rock alongside other hybrid electronic / rock bands such as Seefeel and Disco Inferno (a couple years before the term got lumped onto Tortoise); yet on the other, Main had inspired the isolationist aesthetic where jack-booted industrialists and grizzled metallers tried their hands at grim ambient constructions. Since then, Main's influence has waned, as people like Jim O'Rourke and Fennesz have upstaged his guitar radicalism; and also as Main's albums have become increasingly more hermetic and less interested in the ideals of rock.
This last reason is obviously why Main got dropped from a sweet deal on Beggars Banquet; but, such opened up a number of possibilities to collaborate with Janek Schaeffer and Antenna Farm, as well as to produce this fine piece of electronic abstraction for (K-raa-k)3. On "Tau," very little is left of anything even closely resembling the timbres, harmonics, and actions of a guitar. It could be quite possible that there is in fact no guitar on this album. Nevertheless, Hampson calmly describes a sonic narrative through discrete samples which recall the alien tonalities of Morton Subotnik's work with the Buchla synthesizer. Loaded with MAX / MSP filters, these individual sounds amass into an icy soundtrack of microphonic detailing.
From the label that brought us the amazing Merzbow 'Frog' lp comes this noisy 7" artifact. One side is Man Is The Bastard Noise, more commonly known as Bastard Noise and is the free/electronic/noise offshoot of sludge rockers Man Is The Bastard. BN is Wood from MITB and AQ buddy John Weise. Their side of this single is an almost tranquil blanket of high end whir, sounding like an orchestra of mosquitoes, helicopters, kitchen appliances and madly chirping birds. Almost dreamy in that peculiar noise kind of way. The B side comes courtesy of label honcho Gerritt Wittmer and is three tracks of affected sinister vocals, looped and chopped chunks of low end distortion, very eighties industrial sounding, and I mean that in a good way. Plus Misanthropic's usual impeccable packaging!
Amazing, very METAL metalcore is what Atlanta's Mastodon crank out. These guys used to be in AQ-faves Today Is The Day, which is quite obvious when you hear 'em. They're heavy, aggressive, technical, and -- most importantly -- imaginative. Already up there with the likes of Coalesce and Converge in our estimation. Mastodon seems even more metal than those metalcore worthies, though.
Maybe it's how the guitarist is partial to spitting out those Zakk Wylde-style harmonic squeals. Or maybe it's simply the crushing, crunching, complex riffs and drumming. But there's also some quite pretty melody to be found amidst Mastodon's math n' mayhem, and they have an almost 'post-rock' sense of dynamics (something most 'extreme' metal acts lack). Imagine your favorite old AmRep noise-rock act gone metal...or, Dazzling Killmen mixed with The Champs? Something like that. Also, they cut back on the movie samples that cluttered up their otherwise awesome debut ep (as per our suggestion?). Very impressive.
Okay, so he was "the English Phil Spector". Whew, got that out of the way. In fact he's arguably one of THE most innovative, albeit the most obscure, producers *ever* (other candidates being Spector, Brian Wilson, Lee Perry, other votes welcome!). Though famous first and foremost for his hit with the Tornados' "Telstar" (the first English pop song to hit #1 on the charts in the U.S.), this tone deaf wunderkind had a penchant for the very strange and esoteric as well. It's been said that the man turned down the opportunity to have a first stab at recording The Beatles and David Bowie while counseling an aspiring band to axe front man Rod Stewart if they wanted to work with him. Bad judgements or refined tastes? Given much of the work Meek chose to produce in their stead one might quickly point the finger in the direction of bad judgement, but Meek's visionary "I Hear A New World" suggests that the man had an altogether sublime inspiration that was far ahead of its time.
Fascination with what life could possibly exist on the moon was the seed which drove Joe Meek to compose what could be considered the first "rock" concept album. He wanted to "create a picture in music of what could be up there in outer space." Quite a task. A task that required Meek to use every producing trick in his bag (a very, very big bag.) Take the foundation of an instrumental band, in this case Meek's The Blue Men -- a sort of Venturesy, Shadowsy, Les Paulsy kind of thing -- then squash the hell out of the drums with compression, throw delay and reverb around like a death battle with King Tubby, and add a potpourri of unusual instruments including the Clavioline (a super primitive pre-synthesizer) a purposefully out of tune tack piano, the occasional double speed vocals and you can almost hear Joe's New World. Top this off with the fact that Joe was attempting to create a stereo recording working only with primitive two track machines (not a huge multi-track facility) in his two room apartment recording studio and you know the man had to be a mad genius. (Certifiably mad, if the murder of his landlady and his suicide are any indication.)
This fine new edition of this *absolute*must*hear* album includes, along with all the original tracks, a 35 minute monologue by Joe Meek recorded in 1962 in which Meek gives a brief autobiography leading up to his residing at 538 Holloway Road, describes his studio and its contents: microphones, recording decks, etc and talks about his work. Quite a unique document. Also included on the disc is a film clip of Joe Meek in his studio talking about the music industry (and though the makers of this CD claim that you can only play the film on a PC, it seems to work fine on both Mac and PC.) Plus you get a nice fold out poster with Meek's original notes for each song on I.H.A.N.W. and a thorough telling of the story behind the album.
OK pay attention because this is confusing. The first twelve tracks on this disc are the first time on cd (the vinyl is out of print) of the soundtrack to the film Tropic of Nipples. Participants include noted rockcrit / Blue Oyster Cult lyricist Richard Meltzer, Guided By Voices head honcho Bob Pollard, the legendary-since-the-'70s noise outfit Smegma, and something/one called Antler.
In various permutations these folks cobbled together a soundtrack that's equal parts GBV-style fractured pop and totally annoying declamatory utterances (like the Nihilist Spasm is also wont to do) over a bed of random noise.
*However*, this cd also issues some material never before available, notably six tracks of Meltzer's punk band Vom, who were SO GREAT! Releasing one record in '78, they played an absolutely rippin' Voidoids-Richard-Hell-style, fiery three chord punk. So great, boy are these guys due for a proper reissue. (Maybe Peter Buck will do it, he's reportedly their #1 fan.) Other extras include a song Pollard wrote with the late Jim Shepard.
Worth the price of the disc if you like the three VOM samples below. If you're not into those, I can't strongly recommend the rest of the material here.
I'm sure Moby is a nice enough guy but come on, does he warrant the hype? Not really. He may bring in as many different guest vocalists as he likes, including a gospel choir, the harmonizing indie duo Azure Ray, MC Lyte, Sinead O'Connor, assorted soul divas etc, but his methods remain so formulaic: forefront the voices and behind them throw in as many predictable sounds as possible, including orchestral strings, dramatic keyboards, and really really really frickin' boring rhythm tracks. A six year old could poop out more interesting beats than Monsieur Moby. This is "electronica" dumbed down for maximum lowest common denominator appeal. Even the promising return of MC Lyte is ruined. This is the sort of unbelievably bad stuff that gets you on the cover of SPIN and the NY Times Magazine. Very disappointing!
Yet another in the seemingly endless stream of Morricone soundtracks released on Italian label Dagored. This cd contains the previously unreleased original film versions of all 16 tracks of Venuta Dal Mare (the main titles through to the finale) as well as the concert suite version. This is Morricone in his suspenseful strings and flute mode. Perhaps a little too suspenseful? It just seems to go on and on and on. For completists only.
