Sounding not unlike a sinister drunken parade of circus freaks, these songs churn and chug along like a horsedrawn carriage with a broken wheel smeared with greasepaint and bourbon. Pianos have the wits bashed out of 'em, cellos are sawed to bits, guitars jut and twist. On a few songs, they're joined by clarinet, violin, tapes, bass and alto sax. All the while lead singer Mike Hudson delivers his raw, tormented tales (the lyrics/stories are included in the cd's booklet). This cd is actually from 1998 and compiles an assortment of Styrenes recordings from 1982 through to 1993 - their album A Monster And The Devil as well as a handful of compilation and singles. Full of dark madness, this music spirals downward with ample spit, slur and strangeness.
These never-before issued recordings are of live performances in 1960 at the Wonder Inn and Majestic Hall, before Sun Ra moved his Arkestra out of Chicago to New York. Arkestra sessions at the Wonder Inn drew many emerging avant-jazz players who would later define the new sound, and these dates include Philip Cohran (who would go onto the AACM and his own Ethnic Heritage Ensemble), Ronnie Boykins, John Gilmore, and Marshal Allen. At the Wonder Inn, Gershwin standards, complete with vocals, are given time alongside Sun Ra originals; at Majestic Hall, inventive percussive improvs share space with almost romantic melodicism and space-age big band riffs. "Music From Tomorrow's World" is an illuminating insight into an idea in development: the Arkestra ranks are relatively small compared to later incarnations, the extra-terrestrial costumes are just beginning, and the sound is in transition from post-bop to more experimental approaches.
This is a singles compilation from the semi-legendary San Francisco garage / party band Supercharger. Trashy and nosie-y and fun. Weird fact: Darin Raeffelli, singer and guitar player of Supercharger, was responsible in a big way for the creation of The Donnas, and even wrote most of the songs for their first two LP's!
Witness the return of the mighty Tarantula Hawk, the San Diego based psychedelic volume dealers whose immense self-titled debut cd we raved about two years ago. Here's their second album, somewhat confusingly also self-titled (obviously these guys don't work in record store!), which again proves them to be the masters of drone prog metal supreme. Instrumental super heavy ritual music, bass-heavy majestic murk with grinding prog rock keyboards and intense, energizing drumming, spacey stretches of ominous gloom...
Imagine the Omen soundtrack meets Neurosis, or an evil ELP into Eyehategod. Or a crust-metal take on 20th century classical? Or AQ-fave '60s Swedish drone-psych band Parson Sound on a diet of cough syrup and Celtic Frost? Further references: Boris, Corrupted, Old Man Gloom, Thrones, Magma, Ruins, Harvey Milk...you get the picture.
After getting into the first T-hawk album, and seeing them live for the first time (an amazing show at Richmond's Burnt Ramen), I remember thinking, wow, this band really should be playing that Neurosis Beyond The Pale festival, they'd blow everybody away. A year or so later -- lo and behold, the Hawk not only played the 2002 edition of Beyond the Pale, but this is on Neurot Recordings as well. 5 tracks, 74 minutes total, with the final track clocking in at a massive 49 minutes!
As good as their self-titled debut, or better, and obviously highly recommended!
We stock this excellent British "extreme metal" mag every month, but rarely remember to list it...but thought this time we'd give it a mention 'cause there's a whole page in here about our pals The Fucking Champs! Plus, Meshuggah, Eyehategod, Judas Priest, The Berzerker, In Flames, Limbonic Art, and plenty more. With the sexy female singer of Lacuna Coil on the cover, not sure how extreme that is...
"Blue Blood" is the second live album from the twisted math-metal band Today Is The Day. Recorded while on tour in support of their Relapse debut "Temple Of The Morning Star" at Okay's Corral in Madison, Wisconsin in 1998, this set featured Today Is The Day mastermind Steve Austin on guitar, voice, samples, and bass, backed by Chris Reeser on keyboards and Brad Elrod on drums. Always an amazing live band, Today Is The Day cranks out an impressive set, colliding methamphetamine laced metalcore riffs with complex rhythmic onslaughts. Most of the tracks come from the aforementioned "Temple" album with a couple older tracks from their AmRep days, but nevertheless finds Today Is The Day in their more recent demonic / Satanic persona. While the sound quality is pretty good, "Blue Blood" appears to be a board mix as the vocals are pretty loud, while the guitars a bit soft. A minor criticism, though.
This new cd from Norwegian avantgarde ex-black metallers Ulver isn't really new, as it actually is a reissue compilation of their two limited edition, now out of print eps "Silence Teaches You How To Sing" and "Silencing The Singing" on one handy, domestically issued disc (by a new label run by Aaron of tUMULt's noise-pop artists Iran, who met Ulver while in Norway filming a documentary about the black metal scene!). So, you don't need it if you already have those two import discs, but if you don't, we most certainly recommend it -- both eps are two of Ulver's best post-black metal efforts to date, as they move into unclassifiable experimental/electronica realms. To sum up our previous commentary on these eps: "Silence Teaches You..." is a single, 24 minute track of electonic experimental improv, a slowly-unfolding collage of organic drones and beats and clicks and field recordings and post-rock piano melody etc., that might remind you of everything from Tarwater to Philip Jeck to Fennesz to Mogwai... Quite mellow, dark and beautiful, a soundscape composed, in part, of static-y electro-grime overlaying scratchy vinyl looping with occasional wordless drifting vocals. It was constructed from material recorded in a one-night "Dead City Centre jam" during the sessions for Ulver's previous full-length album, the love it or hate it "Perdition City". Unlike that album, though, this ep benefits from a lack of horrendous vocal and saxophone contributions! The similar in method/sound "Silencing The Singing" follows, three tracks providing another half hour of music, constructed of repetitive melodic and non-melodic loops (some notes on a piano, scratchy vinyl surface noise, what might be far-off voices), gradually joined by electronic blips and beats. The mood is quiet and languid, as are the rhythms, although the last track builds into a lovely few final moments of loud distortion.
Ulver of course originally made their name in the black metal scene, with such classic the-forest-is-my-throne-style albums as "Nattens Madrigal" and "Kveldsanger", full of church-burning riffs and wolverine vocals (and acoustic folk music in the case of "Kveldsanger"). And we won't deny that that's some of their best stuff -- it is. But since those days they've abandoned black metal and morphed into some sort of odd, willfully abstract electronic/experimental band -- and as well, Ulver leader Krystoffer "Garm" Rygg started up the fab Jester label to release music by all sorts of likeminded (i.e. fucked) Norwegian artists (including AQ faves When, Bogus Blimp, Origami Galaktika, Rotoscope, and of course Ulver).
And while Ulver's black metal past isn't overtly evident on these recordings, we could suppose that their earlier appreciation of the grim, lo-fi, trance-like ambience created by their (former) heroes Darkthrone and Mayhem is still a part of Ulver's sound, explaining their music's current immersion in a grimy (if not grim) background of constant crackle and buzzing drones. Well, that and the fact that such sounds are now as hip in experimental/electronica circles as they are cult in metal.
The User's Symphony #1 For Dot Matrix Printers was released as a little 3" cd on the Staalplaat label back in 1999, and this longer follow up is (again) just what you'd expect: a bunch of standard, now rather obsolete, dot matrix computer printers running through a server (the "conductor"), set up to "make music" by printing synchonized ASCII files prepared by The User (Montreal duo Emmanuel Madan and Thomas Macintosh). It's kind of like a player piano music idea applied to ordinary office equipment. The resulting sounds make for some very satisfying, rhythmic, clicking and clacking "electronica" / "minimal techno" music (a la Raster Noton stuff like Noto). Or is this meant as a satiric commentary on such music? Regardless it's good listening. It's especially neat when you have it playing and you forget what you're listening to, your brain placing it in the catagory of "ambient background noise" (the usual fate of printer sounds) even though you probably don't have any dot matrix printers around...and then you gradually notice these mundane noises coalescing into music and you realize it's The User.
It's been a while since I've listened to The User's first Dot Matrix Symphony, but this one seems a bit more musically sophisticated, although the conceptual gimmick (a cool one) remains, obviously, the same. For their next project, though, we're told The User will be documenting sounds from their Silophone, a sound installation in an abandoned grain silo that can be accessed to the public through the internet.
Here's the soundtrack to your wildest blaxploitation-fueled fantasies, baadasssss R&B with an acid rock edge. You'll never have to ask, "Mommy, what's a funkadelic?" after this.
"Chains & Black Exhaust" is a compilation of late sixties/early seventies raw, fuzzed-out funk put together by some young, devotedly-crate-diggin' Memphis DJs, who apparently don't think we need to know what exactly we're listening too, 'cause there's no artist info, no track listing, nothing -- heck, the title of the comp appears nowhere on it, even! They give us a tantalizing but unhelpful glimpse of some original 45 labels in a photo in the cd booklet, which is otherwise illustrated with snapshots of black motorcycle club insignia. We can't imagine this lack of info is for copyright reasons, perhaps they just don't want their finds being identified & scooped by other DJs...? And unfortunately, none of us here, despite our enthusiasm for this stuff and general musical expertise, can tell you what's on here, nor did we locate a tracklist on the internet.
Oh well, whoever these mystery artists are, what's important is that they kick out the jams big time here: hard, heavy stuff full of wailing acid-psych wah wah leads, driving organ, killer grooves, and soulful vocals. It's funk verging on rock, with Black Power meets garagey rock n' roll attitude. Of course, these old singles tracks are served up with lots of lovely ol' vinyl crackle, just scratchy enough to lend that extra level of authenticity and atmosphere to the party. Highly recommended -- if you're into *early* Parliament-Funkadelic you'll dig these 16 cuts. This is one of those albums that just sells itself the second we put it on over the stereo -- even our pal DJ Z-Trip bought one instantly. Enjoyed that Peanut Butter Wolf-produced collection of unearthed funk singles? Then you'll love this one too. Right on.
"The muse was in the mistakes," reads the press release for the third installment in Mille Plateaux's compendium of contemporary, glitched electronica; however, it has to be said that these "mistakes" -- hard disc rewrite errors, pinprick glitches, microsonic tears, etc. -- have come to define stylistic conceits of a very clean, posh deviation from the standard templates of techno, electro, and occasionally hip hop. True, there has been enough of an stylistic acceleration since the second Clicks & Cuts compilation from 2001 to warrant a new cross-section of glitched electronica; yet the trajectory has steered towards an ironic, self-reflexive position of pop iconography, complete with favoritism towards gimmicky hooks, disposable R&B vocals, and lite rhythms. Mille Plateaux claims that this sound follows Deleuzian models as a "bastard offspring of capitalist output." This may be true, but why does its current form sound more like the commonplace output of capitalism rather than its subversive antithesis (which is what Mille Plateaux has always implied about its purpose)?
Nevertheless, the music -- if you can conveniently overlook the potential conceptual dilemmas -- is quite enjoyable and pleasant. As stated above, it reflects the genres of techno, electro, and hip hop through the glitch. Artists include SND, Frank Bretschneider, Andreas Tilliander, MRI, Bizz.Circuits, Claudia Bonarelli, Geeez 'N' Gosh, Alva Noto, Rob Acid, Luomo, Antonelli Electr., Mikael Stav�strand, Swayzak, Donnacha Costello & David Donohoe, Rechenzentrum, AGF, Tim Hecker, Dat Politics, Boris Polonski, Robin Judge, Ekkehard Ehlers, and Pomassl. Sometimes, you run the risk of ruining your own art by mashing together conceptual agendas and formal techniques that don't exactly fit.
(Paraphrased from the back cover of this, again, EXTREMELY LIMITED release:)
Hot on the heels of the St. Ides rap compilation "DJ Drank's Greatest Malt Liquor Hits" in the "Hip Hop History Collectors' Series" comes "DJ Dank's Biggest Bong Hits" featuring the best of West Coast 1990's hip hop/rap dank (weed) anthems including Tha Alkaholiks' "Mary Jane," Luniz' "I Got 5 On It (Remix)," and Total Devastation's "Many Clouds of Smoke." With every other hip hop track including some reference to getting high there are tons of rhymes about joys of the sticky green. And one of the best times for weed anthems, especially on the West Coast, was the first half of the nineties (hip hop's "blunted" era) when Dr. Dre released "The Chronic," Cypress Hill reigned supreme, and such classics as RBL Posse's "Don't Gimme No Bammer Weed," Total Devastation's "Many Clouds Of Smoke," The Luniz' "I Got Five On It," and The Pharcyde's "Pack The Pipe" were all released. The so-bad-it's-good "Leprechaun In The Hood" boasts a classic weed moment when Ice T shares "the bomb" with the evil lil green fella ("A friend with a weed is a friend indeed!"). Note that back in 1993 when it seemed like everyone was getting blindly blunted the lone dissenting voice of Boots offered up an alternate view ("ain't no revolution gonna come from the blunted") in "The Last Blunt" on the Coup's debut, "Kill My Landlord."
SUPER LIMITED.
Kathy McGinty lovers watch out! If you loved that prank phone call album and wanted to replicate the effect -- a preprogrammed set of responses to unleash upon unsuspecting folks -- here's your chance. And it's all Aaaahnold! Schwarzenegger that is. Plus Pacino and Pesci. You may remember these pranks making the rounds on the net a few years ago -- "I'm Detective John Kimball!" and "Who is your daddy and what does he do?" The calls even made it onto an early episode of the AQ Neighborhood Films series. So we've got 21 tracks of the existing prank calls (answering machine material for days!), 24 of the actual sound bytes so you can make your own calls, plus 9 bonus digital skratch DJ tracks -- perfect for DJs with cd scratchers. 55 tracks in all.
After a brief break, the folks (one folk anyway: the tireless & dedicated Chuck Warner) at Hyped To Death have resumed their tireless onslaught of 70s n' 80s punk / pop documentation. These genuinely rare gems from rare singles and LP comps come to you pretty darn lo-fi and in the raw, but compiled with a sincere love and appreciation. Chuck just wants these unsung heroes to be heard. Each cd-r is accompanied by some scant yet interesting & informative liner notes (especially considering how obscure these songs and bands are). The Homework series bursts at the American 'hyphen wave' seams (i.e, art-wave, punk-wave, no-wave - although most of the songs here are pretty straightforward pop-punk). Twenty six songs in all from '78 to '82 by bands whose names begin with the letter 'C': The Consumers, Come On, The Comateens, The Clap, Capital Punishment, The Cunts, Christmas, The Crap Detectors, CCCP-TV, Chi Pig and a Christian punk band from Fairbanks, Alaska... The Cynics!
The term 'lowercase' was coined a few years back by Steve Roden as a means of describing his music, reflecting a very quiet, contemplative compositional strategy that focused on the minutae of sound. Since then, a Yahoo newsgroup has taken shape as an unmoderated forum for discussion and announcement, concerning musics that emphasize the exploration of sound at low volumes. While there have been a number of semantic arguments in that newsgroup stating rigid parameters for what is 'lowercase' and what is not, this compilation offers an overview of two of the dominant forms within the 'lowercase' sound. Disc one deals with almost Fluxus like procedures that document physical gestures as a sonic form, and disc two holds the purely electronic manipulations of sound. On the first disc, highlights include works from Gal (with an excerpt from recordings of an installation of amplified teakettles and hotplates set on timers, in which the boiling water and the cooling metal becomes the action in question), Matt Shoemaker (with an evolving crackling of nervous textures, deep rumbling, and whirring drones for the most action packed recording on the 2 disc set), and Reynols (with an unreleased take from their great "Blank Tapes" sessions). Others include the Beige Channel, Tucker Dulin, Josh Russell, Bob L. Sturm, Dale Lloyd, Yannik Dauby, Electric Company, Joseph Seimion, Animist Orchestra, Radu Malfatti, Jason Lescalleet, David Gross, Under Quartet, and John Hudak.
Disc two with its focus on electronic composition features the more well known names although tends towards the subaudible end of the 'lowercase' sound. Artists include Francisco Lopez, Akira Rabelais, Stephan Mathieu, Otaku Yakuza, Rsundin, Immedia, Dan Abrams, Peter Van Hoesen, Michael Schumacher, Carl Stone, Tetsu Inoue, Taylor Deupree, Kim Cascone, Toshimaru Nakamura, Jonas Lingren, and Civyiu Kkliu. As with the first 'lowercase' compendium, this also comes with an extra set of discs thar are intended to be given to friends who may be curious as to what this incredibly quite music is all about. How thoughtful of them!
Almost a decade has passed since Warp Records issued "Real Intelligence" -- a compilation of electronic music that expanded the boundaries of techno beyond the mere utility of club music. That compilation has often been viewed as the blueprint for IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) introducing artists like Black Dog, Autechre, B12, and Aphex Twin. The aesthetic successes that these artists have enjoyed during the ensuing years has been both a blessing and a curse to the genre, as many of the IDM proponents have indulged in the rich veneer of IDM (with its fractured breakbeats, minor chord melodies, complex algorithmic patterns, aloof references towards obscure musique concrete composers, a techgnostic favoritism of circuitry over flesh, etc.) as opposed to the conceptualization behind IDM as a continuous examination of how 'intelligence' can marry 'dance music.' "MAS Confusion" is a compilation that undeniably falls into the worship of IDM surfaces. Curated by Don and Roel Funcken (the brothers who call themselves Funckarma) from the boxes of demo tapes collecting dust at the house of Michael Fakesch (from Funkstorung), "MAS Confusion" follows the same formulas that Funkstorung liberally acquired from Autechre. There is no inquiry or new solutions being put forward into the IDM discourse, but instead offers some exceptionally well-executed renditions of Autechre, Aphex, and the Autechre side-project Gescom. The artists in question include Metamatics, Lusine ICL, Stars As Eyes, Zela, Autophmc, Adam Johnson, Quench, Tomato Weirdo, Michael Fakesch, and Mr. Projectile.
Second volume of delicate, spacious electronics and minimal glitch funk from Deluxe, featuring Electric Birds, Bizz Circuits, Sagan, Pan American, Soft Pink Truth (Drew Daniel of Matmos), Warmdesk, Jetone, Emisor and Daniel Gardner.
Ironic posturing. Dorky electronics. Sneering No Wave anti-grooves. Wack beats. Dumb raps. Cheap thrills. Yup, it's marketing genius from Tigerbeat 6 and they're commemorating the first full North American tour for Numbers, Cex, and Stars As Eyes with this label compilation. Along with the chopped art-rock angularity of the Numbers, Cex's perposterously juvenile hip-hop, and Stars As Eyes' majestic yet art-schooled IDM, "Paws Across America" features a smattering of DSP workouts, grimy disco, and abused Rotterdam 'ardcore from Original Hamster, Electric Company, Knifehandchop, Nudge, Nathan Michel, Uprock, and that enigmatic German duo Zeigenbock Kopf. Tigerbeat claims that this compilation is all new and exclusive; however, the Knifehandchop track did appear on "TKO From Tokyo" 12."
35 current stoner rock bands, doing covers of cheesy 70's classic rock songs. 156+ minutes. The bands range from well known to not known at all. Highlights include: Raging Slab "We're An American Band", Los Natas "Brainstorm", Alabama Thunderpussy "Hymn 43", Fireball Ministry "Doctor Doctor", Spirit Caravan "Wicked World", Gideon Smith & The Dixie Damned "The Pusher" etc.
A document like this is awfully difficult to listen to in the store, even more so than a number of the ultra-minimalist compositions that grace the experimental section. Yet, from what I could grasp, "Surrealism Reviewed" appears to be an important art-historical documentation of audio recordings made by the chief proponents of Surrealism and Dada, dating back as early as 1928 and including Marcel Duchamp, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, Tristan Tzara, Phillipe Soupault, Salvador Dali, Herbert Read, Lee Miller, Man Ray, Roland Penrose, Robert Desnos, Andrea Breton, Louis Aragon, and Antonin Artaud. Spotted with a few musical interludes (including the tango from the Bunuel / Dali film "Un Chien Andalou" and an odd "snapshot from the jazz age" by Jean Cocteau), this is mostly a spoken word document with poems, lectures, and interviews, spoken alternately in French and English, and the liner-notes translate some of the French texts into English. Highlights include the incredibly bizarre Dali interview, Duchamp's lecture elaborating on the poetry of mathematics as a metaphor for the creative process, and the amazingly contrived radio interview between Lee Miller, Roland Renrose, and CBS radio host Ona Munson.
RIGHT UP FRONT, THIS IS VERY LIMITED, WE ONLY HAVE 4 COPIES, AND WE PROBABLY CAN'T GET ANY MORE, SO DON'T DAWDLE.
Gorgeous five 7" box set to commemorate the 5th Terrastock festival. Designed and released by our pal Nemo who runs Time Lag records (who recently released the Charalambides double lp and those amazing Entoptic lp compilations) and records as Drona Parva. The box and the seven inch sleeves are made of really nice thick paper and are hand assembled and letterpressed. One seven inch each by THE IDITAROD, STONE BREATH, CHARALMBIDES, BARDO POND, and SONIC YOUTH (doing two Aerosmith covers?). Really cool.
After a brief break, the folks (one folk anyway: the tireless & dedicated Chuck Warner) at Hyped To Death have resumed their tireless onslaught of 70s n' 80s punk / pop documentation. These genuinely rare gems from rare singles and LP comps come to you pretty darn lo-fi and in the raw, but compiled with a sincere love and appreciation. Chuck just wants these unsung heroes to be heard. Each cd-r is accompanied by some scant yet interesting & informative liner notes (especially considering how obscure these songs and bands are). The series title tells it all. Super catchy youthful tunes from the pop/punk underground. Y'know the stuff you would've read about in the Trouser Press or early Creem Magazines back in the day! Amid the 27 cuts on this eighth chapter (and Hyped To Death's 64th release!) are six previously unreleased songs. Artists include Circus, The Clicks, Bohemia, The Cheepskates, Astrosurf, Craig Bevan & The Tourists, The Boys, Alter Ego, The Corsairs, the late Stiv Bators (Dead Boys, Lords Of The New Church), a Swedish band called The Beat and many more.
Trojan now has a contest on their website in which you can make a suggestion for upcoming box set releases. You can choose just the theme, or even go as far as picking out the tracks. And though I wish I could lay claim to the concept that's been floating around to make the Trojan Overlap Box Set, I can't -- somebody else already brilliantly suggested that Trojan release a box set of tracks everyone already has on at least three other Trojan compilations. And if Trojan's sense of humor is at least half the size of their opportunistic abilities, they might just release it. So now you're probably wondering whether or not you should get this. Well, truth is, this is actually a fucking great copulation... err, I mean compilation. Taken from bewteen 1966 and 1975, the tracks range from the subtle double entendre style reminiscent of early mento and calypso artists to the quite overt x-rated. It's the former that by far are the most entertaining as it demonstrates the lyricist's skills in avoiding the wrath of censors, and yet some of the naughtier x-rated cuts can be equally hilarious. Not to mention the Monty Python-esque tracks where two men sing both the male and female parts... strange. It seems as though the production on much of the tracks here is a bit more loose, for lack of a better word, which lends to stranger arrangements at times. I imagine that many of the tracks were not intended for any wide scale release and as such the artists and producers both had more fun in the recording studio. And these aren't obscure producers and singers featured here either. You've got Lee Perry (he's all over this one). Max Romeo (you've never heard Max until you hear him sing "Play With Your Pussy"), Augustus Pablo, U Roy, Niney the Observer, Phyllis Dillon, Derrick Morgan, Lloyd Charmers to name a few. Trojan insures us that a great deal of these tracks have never before been released on CD. So, as Trojan boxes go, we give this one the thumbs up, but don't go playing this one around the family over the holidays.
Hymen have always treated us to some of the most amazing packaging, from elaborate deluxe lps to cd sets/shirts in stickered tupperware containers, but this has to take the cake. A small red box, constructed from gorgeously thick textured, deep red card stock, with the credits embossed on the cover. Open it up to reveal a three inch cd in a full color sleeve with perfectly photoshopped street signs again depicting the credits. But lift out the cd and a small plastic television is set in a little television-shaped cut out. It's one of those little tourist/souvenir plastic TV's that you hold up to the light to see the tiny photos inside. And the photos inside are all the credits of the cd photoshopped into different locations, on billboards, on grain silos, on insects even. Just amazing. Even people who don't like Venetian Snares have been buying this after seeing the packaging. So, the music. The 3" cd contains one 15 minute track, of skittery, slithery, Aphex-like beat heavy electronica. None of that SUPER abrasive drill and bass VS is infamous for, this is surprisingly varied and melodic and quite possibly one of his best tracks.
Two new Venetian Snares on one list. Lucky for us (and you) they're both good, and they're both quite different. "Electronica" in general has the tendency to not really progress or stray stylistically (see Aphex Twin, Squarepusher (no that jazz crap doesn't count), etc.) so it was kind of exciting to throw this VS record on and hear...singing! And weird keyboard melodies and piano!! And SONGS. I mean don't get us wrong, we LOVE Venetian Snares' hyper-spastic drill and bass workouts, but seeing as none of us spend much time on the dancefloor, it's kind of cool to hear a record that incorporates that crazy programming and those pro-tooled beats into actual melodies and songs that sort of work, well, like -songs-. A lot of the record is actually quite sedate, and melancholy, with an emphasis on being melodic and evoking moods. The skittery rhythms and wry sense of humor are still present, but everything's just a bit more subtle. Very soundtrack-y at points, some tracks are actually AMBIENT and almost beatless, but fear not, this is Venetian Snares, so you're never far from a blast of ultra complex beats or a burst of mind melting grind. Nice cover art by Trevor Brown!
Wigrid is a one-(Ger)man band that plays raw black metal definitely influenced by the notorious Burzum. Indeed, as you become enveloped in the depressive, distorted, plodding fuzz-forest of Wigrid's imagination, you'll be convinced that such unending grimness hasn't been inflicted upon the world since before the incarceration of Varg Vikernes, aka Burzum. Wigrid's massive, murky wall of fuzz, with desperate, screamed vocals lost behind it, marches slowly ever onward, with primitive, minor-key melodies subliminally effecting your soul. The sparse, pulsing drum machine hits are similarily buried in the repetitive guitar riff-stortion. Nothing fancy, or that original (the cover drawing even looks suspiciously like it was borrowed from Burzum's "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss"), but wholly satisfying if this is a mood that interests you. Submitting to Wigrid's monotonous yet majestic misery and cold, cold anguish is a release. It's trancey and hypnotic and ambiently ear-grinding. For fans of "Hvis..." / "Filosofem" era Burzum (duh), Weakling, and other troglodytic, minimal dirge metal.
Like many of the 'lowercase' and 'microsound' artists, the Berkeley digital technician Christopher Willits defines his interests in an electronic music "that is generated spontaneously, non predetermined... with a focus on the the material implications of self-organizing systems." What is often left out of contemporary methodologies such as Willits' (or Taylor Deupree, Kim Cascone, Carsten Nicolai, or even Autechre) is a seemingly paradoxical requirement for these autonomous, generative systems to unilaterally contextualize the aesthetic output within the parameters of the glitch. The persistence of this glitched aesthetic is running the risk of becoming a cliche, in which the simple invocation of a fractured sample will no longer have any cultural value beyond a one-way reference to generative systems.
That said, Willits finds himself in an increasing subset of the glitched aesthetic whose practitioners have been manipulating the guitar (particularly the rich warm sounds of an acoustic guitar) through such digitized systems to add an extra-dimension to the music. Amidst the geometrically jagged sounds, aerosol dispersals of terse clicks, and random fluctuations in sonic densities, Willits' debut "Folding And The Tea" reveals itself more as Derek Bailey guitar improvisation with all of those gritty, spidery texures replaced with a very clean, very polite set of semi-structured harmonics. It neither has the density nor the shameless pop sensibility of Fennesz, nor does it have Keith Fullerton Whitman's interest in the transcendence of Minimalism; its focus is somewhat ambiguous, but the plasticity of surface found within "Folding And The Tea" rivals either of those artists in terms of craftsmanship.
Michigan's masters of the gristled throb return with their second record this year. Maybe the only group still carrying the torch of eighties industrial (TG, Psychic TV, etc.) Wolf Eyes continue to spew forth a noxious brew of analogue electronics, squealing feedback, primitive drum machines and tortured, anguished howls. At first this seemed like their weakest record, but on repeated listens, this 3 track sort-of-e.p. reveals itself as maybe their best. Perhaps not as brutal and abrasive, but just as intense and much more -gasp- melodic. The first track burns slow and dark, like an Italian horror movie soundtrack done music concrete style. Chirping and whirring, like the sound of mechanical insects creep over a soundscape that is downright ambient. Eventually the inevitable onslaught begins, as Merzbowian white noise swells and Mothra-like sqwawks collide with machinery run amok, a wall of squeals and creaks and rumbles. The second and third track, are a little more 'classic' Wolf Eyes, you know, sort of like the bastard offspring of Whitehouse and Suicide. A simple pulse, throbs relentlessly as unintelligible, gutteral vocalisations battle for supremecy with high pitched squeals and feedingback amps. Track three is a bit more sedate, but just as ominous and rhythmically pulsing. Some sweet, sweet noise.
Will Finland never cease to surprise us? How can one tiny country continue to produce so much progressive, transgressive, creative and fucking perfect experimental rock? Circle, Keuhkot, Avarus, Anaksimandros, Mieskuoro Huutajaat, Pharoah Overlord, Ektroverde, Skepticism, Kemialisett Ystavat, and now Worms!
The Worms may be new to us (and actually to most people in Finland, surprisingly) but they have been a fixture of the Finnish underground for over a decade. And even after a decade, their entire recorded output consisted of three 7" singles and a few compilation tracks. So Andee's tUMULt label managed to track down the band, and discovered that they actually recorded a full length a few years back, but the label that was supposed to release it dropped the ball.
So here it is finally and man is it something. Five tracks of beautiful brutality. A dark and wintry, more motorik My Bloody Valentine, mixed with a little Circle and a little Filth-era Swans. Or some Frankensteinian dirge rock band, equal parts Godflesh, My Bloody Valentine, the Shadow Ring, and the Swans.
The disc starts off with a massive 30 minute medley, a droning hypnotic dirge, like Terry Riley composing for Godflesh or the Melvins and not a little reminiscent of Dutch riff gods Gore. Endless and hypnotic, crushing and brutal. The next three tracks display Worms more melodic side, letting a little pop shine through, with lilting vocals and darkly melancholic melodies and frontman Veli Pesonen's deep Michael Gira like drawl intoning simple mantra-like lyrics, over jangly strummed riffs, more melodic maybe, but still drone-y and hypnotic and dreamy. Think late era Swans, or maybe the Terminals, or the Clean, that sort of dreary, jangly New Zealand rock. The twenty minute 'Border' closes proceedings with a glorious din of shimmering but harrowing guitars, buried melodies and relentlessly propulsive rhythms. This was a long time coming, but once you hear it you'll agree it was well worth the wait. Definitely for fans of all the above mentioned bands as well as connoisseurs of drone/dirge/doom. Crushingly beautiful. And of course essential.
Gosh, somebody must have convinced wall-of-sound Japanese "noise-pop" duo Xinlisupreme that their last album "Tomorrow Never Comes" wasn't noisy enough. 'Cause though we'd not have thought it possible, it seems they've upped the mayhem quotient here, on this 7-track followup! Heavily distorted, uh, distortion, with pretty little melodies and beats buried beneath. An extreme electronic blend of My Bloody Valentine, Digital Hardcore, DJ Scud, Merzbow, and stuff like by these feedback-lovin' popsters. We think this is quite nice, though for some that word might seem strange in context of Xinlisupreme's up-front loudness and chaos. Recommended.
Yo La's new ep sees them covering (in multiple versions) the obscure, though recently reissued, Sun Ra song "Nuclear War." First things first, if you're expecting the dreamy loveliness of YLT's last album And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, be forewarned: their four versions of "Nuclear War" are nothing like that! Actually the music on the first two is much more in line with the heavier, groovier stretches of their Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science soundtrack. Georgia, Ira and James have been known to throw an aural curve ball now and again -- detouring from their usual warm, soothing pop path to reveal their respectable jazz inclinations. A good example was their self-released but sadly out of print double 7" that featured their collaborations with New York free jazz artists Roy Campbell Jr, Daniel Carter, and Sabir Mateen.
Now two years later, they've offered another glimpse. It's a glimpse that has already received such polarized response from those who've heard it in the store (sorta like the Langley Schools Music Project), that you might just wanna scoop it up to see what the fuss is about. And heck, it's only four bucks!
But...we still have to ask, "what were they thinking?" I mean, we're all for the political, anti-war statement being made, but they should have picked a song that didn't require Ira Kaplan to soullessly chant "motherfucker". It just sounds dumb. And then to hear children chanting it too in Version #2? Egads! No, the impact of having kids singing those lyrics isn't lost on us, the stickiness is having them echo the deadpan delivery of Kaplan. The Sun Ra original was a cosmic jazz funk piece in the "Space Is The Place" vein, but as much as YLT like it, they can't pull it off, particularly with regards to the vocals. Makes for pretty difficult listening, but not the good kind! Memo to YLT: protest songs that can only be enjoyed as painful novelty tracks ain't gonna stop no wars... Fortunately, Version #3 is an extended fifteen minute jam that redeems this release considerably with their jazz friends Campbell, Carter and Mateen making a reappearance along with other downtown NYC jazzers Susie Ibarra and Josh Maddell. Oh, and then to mix things up even more, Version #4 is a remix by Mike Ladd. But by that point, do you want to hear more "Nuclear War"?
Covering Sun Ra is much like covering The Residents or The Monks (as was recently done) -- arguably pretty futile 'cause each are far beyond the music itself. Furthermore as is often the case with covers, maybe this just should've been reserved for their live performance mode and not committed to tape. Let's just hope that YLT aren't now responsible for causing fans of theirs who've not heard Sun Ra to never check his stuff out merely because their interpretations of this particular (and not entirely representative) composition fall flat. Please go to our review of the Atavistic reissue of Sun Ra's "Nuclear War" for a side-by-side RealAudio comparision...
The first thing you notice on Relayer is that oh so familiar Bower 'shimmer' from so many Skullflower/Total/Hototogisu/Sunroof! records. But this collaboration with Richard Youngs keeps things firmly in 'shimmer' without ever pulling out the stops and letting loose with a torrent of free-noise-jazz-skree as both are wont to do. Youngs contributes his usual melodic playfulness adding an almost festive/Christmas-y feel. The whole record in fact exudes that sort of vibe, shimmery dreamy ambience, with curious but appealing instrumentation like calypso casio beats, noodly keyboard melodies, steady ch-ch-ch rhythms, far away guitar freakouts, and all sorts of hum and buzz. Noise-y but joyous and warm. Almost new-agey but in a good way. A VERY GOOD way. Maybe think George Winston on peyote!! Or a Total record on Windham Hill. Sounds bad maybe, but coming from me (Andee) you know those comments are high praise indeed. Really really great!
RealAudio clip: "Eagle Like A Fly" [/audio/youngsbowereagle.rm]
RealAudio clip: "Iridescent Hosedown" [/audio/youngsbowerhosedown.rm] ----* ----* Incredible String Band Reissues : ----* England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties / early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics.
Very sixties, very hippy -- they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. But then, as they say, there's more: their music encompasses traditional British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. -- an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
