We totally loved the MCMS cd-r on Celebrate Psi Phenomena (a split with Yermo, now out of print), so we were pretty psyched for TWO new titles courtesy of our pals at Last Visible Dog. Starts off as weird, British style folk, loosely strummed acoustic guitars, warbly flute and urgently whispered vocals. This soon becomes a dirty, gritty garage-y dirge/drone rock workout. Krautrock-ish rhythms filtered through a Dead C noiserock aesthetic that veers into noisy freakout territory. The record continues on, careening wildly from tuneless, Comus style pagan folk to chaotic free rock, to blissful dronescapes. Good stuff.
Another new name from Campbell Kneale's mighty Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label, and it's yet another winner. A hyperminimal dronescape of warm underwater tones, thick and slow moving, dreamy and surreal, muted melodies stretched into thick blankets of fuzzy warmth. The second half of the record sounds like a straight field recording, wind and footsteps and dogs barking and the faraway whir and hum of everyday life, lovely and serene.
As self-deprecating and painfully shy as Phil Elvrum can be when performing live, his latest release as The Microphones is a monstrously hyperbolic album of artfulness that pushes K Records as close as they will ever come to The Red Krayola or Gastr Del Sol. "Mount Eerie" is an indulgent studio driven album, which may have begun as a psychedelic epic on par with Olivia Tremor Control's "Dusk At Cubist Castle," but has been shattered into a variety of half-completed song fragments which unexpectedly jump, twist, and turn in any number of directions including dense crescendos or lunch-box rock recreations of childrens songs. Elvrum is obviously a very gifted abstractionist of indie-rock strum but is often too elusive in where he wants to take these songs. Despite how vague and convoluted the narratives of "Mount Eerie" are, Elvrum succeeds in directing the album's mood with layers of monochromatic chanting, deep trombones, and huge crashing timpani that give this album a ponderous weight. Mope rock meets art rock.
Pseudo Arcana head honcho starts this disc off with some real Raster-Noton style static clickery but manages to sound way more organic, with throbbing pulses of low end that abruptly cut out and become a dreamy, thrumming, humming wash of warm drones ans slowly shifting spaced-out swish and whir. The rest of the record runs the gamut from noise-y drone ala the Dead C, with bursts of harsh noise and looped samplesforming loping 'rhythms', to all out N O I S E, to dreamy subterranean dronescapes reminiscent of Birchville Cat Motel, to almost-pop buried under fuzz and hiss and distrorted to the point of being pop-no-more.
Siren Performance was devised as an installation using the sounds of air raid sirens and the various sonic harmonics and overtones that resulted from multiple / competeing sound sources. This disc contains a 15 minute recording of the source material for the installation as well as a performance featuring the air raid sirens, as well as Campbell Kneale on electronics, Antony Milton on sampler and broken violin, as well as a few other folks on bass, guitar and more electronics. The sound is stark and beautiful, mournfully wailing like ghosts and wind, slowly pitched up and down. The performance takes those sounds and turns them into a thick drone-y wash of sirens and vigorously bowed stringed instruments which takes the piece into Conrad / Cale / Maclise / Palestine territory.
For a land as huge as Russia, the amount of exceptional music that makes it half way round the world to Aquairus is proportionally very small, especially when compared to how much we get in from New Zealand and Finland. Thus, we were quite intrigued by the prospects of the Russian ensemble The Moglass who prefer to qualify their music as 'personal folk' -- an anti-genre that is beyond the mutable definitions of post-rock, psychedelia, or space-rock. That said, The Moglass are not without precedents, as this trio (armed with guitars, bass, old Soviet synths, and tons of effects) realizes the pinnacles of Popul Vuh (particularly their Werner Herzog soundtracks) entirely through the haunted drones of guitar feedback. Periodically, they have included several radio transmissions all in Russian, so the exact meaning is unknown to us, but the urgency of some of those broadcasts speaks of traumatic events. These work very similar to Godspeed! You Black Emperor's found sound interludes (e.g. "the car's on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel..."), but the mysteriousness due to the language barrier works to enhance the overall mood of the drone rather than compartmentalize it into leftist rhetoric. Although it's a mere 30 minutes long, "Kogda Vse Zveri Zhili Kak Dobrye Sosedi" (which we learned from their website translates as When All the Animals Lived As Good Neighbours) is a remarkably strong album.
- RealAudio clip: A1
- RealAudio clip: A3
Our buddy Myles and his "Of Destruction" band Tony and Audrey return with their first proper full length (still a cd-r but professionally printed). We raved about their first two cd-r's and this one is EVEN BETTER! Just drums, violin and bass, NO GUITARS! MoD whip up a wild and totally unique gypsy-stomp / grind metal / Ruins-ish rhythmic workout with growled gutteral black metal vocals, grinding distorted bass and wildy melodic violin. In the past we compared MoD to a mix of the Warlock Pinchers, Atom And His Package, Metallica, Emperor, and the Magnetic Fields. We also compared them to a more metal Amps For Christ, but as their sound progresses and they get tighter and better, their sound veers in a much more folky/gypsy direction, due mostly to the amazing violin parts, and the humor seems to have taken a back seat to the music, which is a GOOD thing. Think: a black metal Taraf De Haidouks, or Samla Mammas Manna playing selections from the Brutal Truth catalog! Really fucking great!
Windy's off in Vietnam and unable to contribute to our review of this, but she did leave the following simple and to the point note: "I LOVE this album."
We all do actually. Even jazz-phobic Jim has been caught blissing out to The Necks! And everyone we know seems to have at least one record by Australia's Necks, but why didn't any of them tell me how fricking great this stuff is?!?!? This is a new 4 cd set featuring 4 separate hour-long performances, and once you're familiar with their sound, you'll understand that 4 hours, in hour long chunks, is the perfect way to experience The Necks. It's sort of jazz but not exactly. Sort of 20th century classical, but not exactly. Imagine Charlemagne Palestine or Steve Reich composing for a jazz combo and you might be getting close. Or a more lively Bohren and Der Club of Gore, maybe, at times. Hypnotic shuffling jazz rhythms, skittery high hat and ride cymbals, build a skeletal foundation for throbbing monochromatic bass and chiming, cyclical piano. Repetitive, blissed out and totally hypnotic. Drummer Tony Buck we used to know from Peril and Kletka Red amongst other projects, but now we'll consider The Necks his primary claim to fame. Recommended.
Through his DeepSkin imprint, the hermetic New Zealander Clinton Williams has released dozens of cassettes as Omit, housed in his obtuse artwork of bizzare post-Dali monsterisms and awkward geometric shapes. Due to the absence of Williams' artwork on this CD-R production of "Rejector," SySecular doesn't apppear to be the CD-R extention of the Deep Skin cassette catalogue. As Omit's work for haunted synth / loop constructions are incredibly well-executed and sublimely creepy, it's a shame that "Rejector" has only received CD-R status; regardless it's a more accessible format than the nearly-obsolete cassette. Omit's work has clear predecessors in '70s Kraut synthesists like Conrad Schnitzler, Kluster, and early Tangerine Dream; yet his apparently sinister intentions and sci-fi isolationism push his productions closer to the sounds of mid '80s Nurse With Wound (i.e. "Homotopy To Marie") and Zoviet France (i.e. "Mohnomische"). His work uses some amazingly simple techniques of counterpointed tape loops (crackling wood, creaking doors, down-pitched tape splice clicks, etc.) that warble in and out of phase with each other, while dark synth drones swell in and out of the mix to form slowly developed two or three note melodies. As with all of the Omit recordings, "Rejector" comes highly recommended! Super limited too, so don't dawdle.
On Fillmore is Darin Gray (Brise Glace, Dazzling Killmen, Gastr Del Sol) and Glenn Kotche (Boxhead Ensemble, Wilco). These two put their heads together and come up with something new for both of them. Acoustic bass and vibraphone are the foundation, laying down simple almost jazzy/funky grooves. But the focus seems to be on wild and scattered percussion: triangles and chimes and bells and drums and pots and pans are WAY up in the mix and are responsible for most of the tecture and melody. The sound is kind of how you imagine Brise Glace or You Fantastic covering Sun Ra with a purposefully limited pallet. Very hypnotic and noir-ish, slightly jazzy but more just simple, dark and moody.
Daniel Padden, of English improvisational psych-folksters Volcano the Bear, creates meandering, lovely music that has received comparisons to artists as accomplished as This Heat, Soft Machine, and Art Ensemble of Chicago. Distant and spooky to warm and languid, "The One Ensemble Of..." features subtle improv mixed with sparse, repetetive, melodic piano, and manges to make kazoos sound sad and beautiful. Instrumentation also includes violin, cello, saxophone, harmonium, ballaphon (like a Ghanian xylophone), and other "little instruments." A wistful, gorgeous and strange album.
Much like the cloud of plastic googly eyes that festoon the cover of this cd, Parlour's music has the tendency to drift off in all directions. From track to track and moment to moment, they're ever-morphing stylistically and tempo-wise. That's not to say that this album is scattered or haphazard. Not at all, there is a unifying slow, meandering flow to the proceedings, and it's all definitely rooted in the postrock camp. Perhaps the diversity is due to the fact that these tracks were done over a five year period in a number of different locales? Or perhaps it's still the lingering traces of the members past projects (The For Carnation, Aerial M, Crain)? Yes, the latter is particularly apparent. Nevertheless, Googler is an intriguing journey through melodic guitar and bass cycles, driving rhythms, warm drones and prickly textures. At times propulsive and sharp-edged while at others smooth and delicate. Six lengthy songs in all.
After much too long an absence from the recording studio, San Francisco's own Pickpocket Ensemble returns with their third album and an apparently expanded line up. Listening to them on disc I still lament the loss of our beloved Radio Valencia where (how spoiled we were then) one could catch them live for free on regular basis. For those unfamiliar, the Pickpocket Ensemble play a wonderfully unselfconscious amalgamation of, for lack of a better term, folk music from around the world. The group is led by accordionist Rick Corrigan, who also writes the bulk of their material and filled out by violin, double bass, guitar and percussion. Along with both the Parisian and Eastern European influences that form the bedrock of the Pickpocket Ensemble, Corrigan has been further embracing the sounds of Klezmer music and in addition he seems to be delving into the realms of both Spanish and Nubian music. But parsing out specific influences with the Pickpocket Ensemble is a tricky thing as Corrigan's superb arrangements are knit so tightly it becomes difficult to separate the musical threads. The reason I suppose is because Corrigan and company choose to use their alembic to reinforce the commonalities of such diverse elements as much as they do to punctuate the differences. The result of course is just plain fine music that can only come from the Pickpocket Ensemble. Corrigan, an excellent accordion player, has always surrounded himself with great musicians and the recent additions of Marguerite Ostrovski on violin, Tim Fox on guitar and Will High on double bass are certainly no exceptions. Highly recommended!
-Where am I?
-In the Village.
-What do you want?
-Information.
-Whose side are you on?
-That would be telling. We want -- information.
-You won't get it.
-By hook or by crook, we will.
-Who are you?
-The new Number 2.
-Who is Number 1?
-You -- are Number 6.
-I am not a number -- I am a free man!
-[laughter]
In The Prisoner, the sixties James Bond superspy entertainment phenomenon is subverted into an enigmatic, psychedelic critique of the Cold War and modern mass society -- or something. The 1967 British TV series, starring Patrick McGooghan, has long been considered one of the most innovative and original TV shows ever, and enjoys quite a cult following today. Hence the release of this soundtrack disc, one of at least three planned.
This collection blasts off with Ron Granier's famous, dramatic theme, complete with thunder, the roar of motorcar, and the hiss of anesthetizing gas. It's one of the most famous tunes in spydom next to 007, Mission Impossible, and Secret Agent Man. The rest of the disc, taking music from the first three Prisoner epsiodes in order (Arrival, The Chimes Of Big Ben, and A. B. and C.) ranges from more jazzy suspenseful numbers to lovely lullabies to Strauss marches, and also contains many snippets of dialogue, including the classic bit quoted above (which many will remember from Iron Maiden's "The Prisoner"). Only some of the music here was composed and recorded especially for the series, with many selections coming from the Chappell Recorded Music Production Library. The Library music is often quite benign, reflecting the surface serenity of the Village, which after all is a very pleasant resort town -- albeit one from which you can't escape, and in which constant efforts are being made to break your will, if you're an obstinate fellow like Number 6. Suddenly the sixties library music, a 'genre' enjoying a hipster renaissance of late, takes on a sinster significance.
Having witnessed an incredible live show by the French electro-acoustic composers Lionel Marchetti and Jerome Noetinger at 7hz in 2002, I can assure you that this live album is an accurate documentation of how it is distinctly possible to re-create all of the expressiveness of musique concrete on a table full of effects. The Quintet Avant features both Marchetti and Noetinger with fellow countrymen Jean Pallandre, Marc Pichelin, and Laurent Sassi. With dynamic stop/start triggers, painterly flanges, whipsnap collages, and agile control of feedback, this quintet has all of the panache of the best of the INA-GRM group (i.e. Pierre Henry, Michel Chion, Luc Ferrari, etc.), with the added flair of being able to pull it off live. So far, only released on vinyl.
Off the top of my head, I can think of the Monks, Glenn Branca, and Eliane Radigue as some of the musicians who've admitted that their unwitting discovering of feedback profoundly altered their ways of thinking about music. Similar to Eddie Shaw's epiphany about feedback in his biography about the Monks, Radigue's revelation about feedback might warrant religious proportions, given that her meditative compositions led her to become a disciple of Buddhism. It was in the mid-60s, when Radigue was a protege of musique concrete legend Pierre Henry, that Radigue first stumbled across electronic feedback in the studios of INA-GRM. Unfortunately, Henry (with his unwavering insistance on the Modernist superiority of musique concrete) did not share Radigue's enthusiasm and Radigue parted ways to build her own studio that centered around the technologies of the Moog and the Arp synthesizers.
Composed in 1972 and 1973 respectively (though these recordings were made several years later), "Geelriandre" and "Arthesis" represent some of the earliest work of Radigue's maturation as a minimalist. While neither of these pieces appear to use feedback, Radigue's subtle shifting drones within these pieces mirrors the fluttering complexity that a feedback loop (when carefully controlled) can achieve. "Geerlriandre" for prepared piano and Arp synthesizer ripples with a melancholia through a beautiful chorus of tightly oscillating electric drones occasionally punctuated by the sustained yet muffled resonance of the piano. "Arthesis," using the Moog, is a more ominous affair, whirling back and forth between low end frequencies amidst a glacial progression of bleak ambience.
This album isn't only good for historical documentation, but also is an exceptional precursor to the dronological pursuits of current artists like Jonathan Coleclough, Thomas Koner, and Andrew Chalk. Highly recommended.
A perpetual nostalgia runs through the work of Ranier Maria, whose first couple of recordings remain very strong albums in the history of Emo. In looking back not only to the embarassments and lost loves from adolescence (still the reigning subject matter for Emo), Rainer Maria have moved from loud / soft explosions to confessional power ballads to their current sound of '80s retro stylization of hard rock injected with emo, that comes across sort of like the corn ball stunt / party rock found on the "Fubar" soundtrack but done in all seriousness and earnestness without slighting on the theatrics. Smarter than the majority of MTV sponsored Emo though.
This new cd-r release from the always-colorful (and bizarre) Argentinian band Reynols sports a full color cover, perhaps a first for the no-frills Last Visible Dog cd-r label. Recorded live at the Fusa Auditorium in Buenos Aires, September 20th 2001, this is half performed by Reynols (Miguel Tomasin, Moncho Conlazo, Anla Courtis, and Pacu Conlazo) and half by their near-doppelgangers No-Reynols (Juan Manuel Acevedo, No-Moncho Conlazo, No-Anla Courtis, and No-Pacu Conlazo). But whether being led by the whim of Miguel Tomasin or Juan Manuel Acevedo, these groups both fully inhabit a noisy, droney, damaged, beyond-psychedelic, not-really-rock primal stomp territory explored by few others. The disc starts off quite mysteriously and quietly, sounding like a echoey exotica-plus-feedback session, punctuated by distant applause and what might be the strains of some commercial Latin pop.
Are they on stage, in the jungle, or in a void? It's hard to tell. Soon, a stiff, insistent percussion frenzy builds, accompanied by indistinct drone guitar and nonsense vocal interjections. This rapidly grows into a full fledged shamanic incantation of whirling dervish, junk-rock intensity. Howling, grinding, blowing "music" that makes the perfect warm yet alienated background to the throaty, wailing crooning of Miguel (or is it Juan Manuel?). It's so wacked and yet lovely. This umpteenth Reynols document shows that they're indeed an Acid Mothers Temple for those truly moved by authentic weirdness and emotional expression that trumps psychedelic pastiche.
OK, here's an Aquarius-approved 'high concept' album, all right: Estonian medieval music group Rondellus performing covers of Ozzy-era BLACK SABBATH songs translated into Latin!!! Now *this* sounds like a Black Mass! Backed by lute, harmonium, psaltery,
One of the best, and most original, 'tribute' records ever. Now they should go on tour with Apocalyptica (the Finnish cello quartet that does Metallica covers)!
"Gelb" is an unreleased 1974 album produced by the iconoclastic electronic musician Conrad Schnitzler, who sought to demystify the academic strangle hold on electronic music in reducing all of the avant garde techniques and ideas into a simple interplay of tonal color. Often realized as overlapping electronic patterns, cyclical rhythms, and synthetic swooshes, Schnitzler's early '70s compositions appear now as the prototypes of a lot of modern day electronica, especially IDM, ambient, and techno. "Gelb" does sound a little dated, due to the less than perfect recording conditions and the limited palette of electronic sounds, but the sweeping, space-age surfaces of Schnitzler's electronic tones and jittery drum machine arpeggiations are as good as anything he released during that time. Vinyl only.
For their sixth full length, those Sea & Cakes are venturing even deeper into the groovy electronic chillroom and away from their former sunkissed and breezy acoustic path. Super spacious and dreamy, but with considerably more euro jetset flair. Fluid organ tones, wispy string sounds, jazzy shuffling beats. Sam Prekop's voice is still as mellow and as effortless as ever, but this time there's the added eleganza vocal depth of the Navin brothers from the Aluminum Group -- certainly no slouches themselves in the charm'n'croon department. They're joined by Archer Prewitt and Prekop's subtle guitar interplay and the solid-as-ever rhythm section of bassist Erik Claridge and John McEntire on drums. Oh yes, and to top it all off, they do a cover of Bowie's "Sound And Vision". A blissful beauty!
This is a sort-of-reinterpretation of the amazing 'Dronemusic' cd-r released on a while back on Celebrate Psi Phenomena. This is very minimal with lots of incidental clatter and totally random noise. Sounds a bit like some guy cleaning/re-arranging his kitchen, with lots of thumps and bumps and clicks and even some bird calls(!). After about 10 minutes, the drones finally make their presence known. Joined gradually by warbly guitars and wisos of melodies. But almost as soon as they're there, they diappear again. Then it's back to the ambient clatter, discussions, room sound. A reverby piano or buzzing harpsichord surface occasionally, but it always seems to return to our house cleaning, room tidying protagonist. Very strange...
Break out the Molson, 'cause Canadian Black Sabbath doppelgangers Sheavy are back with another (stoner) rockin' disc. The Sabbath comparison arises mainly from singer Steve Hennessey's uncanny vocal resemblance to the nasal tones of Ozzy Osbourne. Although Mr. Hennessey probably won't have his own reality TV show (on Much Music?) in thirty years, he really does sound a heck of a lot like the bat-bitin' one, circa Ozzy's early '80s solo heyday. Sheavy utilizes this seemingly-familiar voice to lead the listener into melodic and heavy (as per their name) territory more rockin' than doomy -- their take on the Sabbath/'70s vibe is closer to Fu Manchu than Electric Wizard: wailing guitars, plentiful hooks, driving grooves, even some "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" style keyboards. Definitely one any Ozzy/Sabbath freak has to check out, but also a recommended album for all into good ol' old fashioned hard rock/metal! Retro like we like it, with lots of sci-fi and car culture references for max kitsch value. How come these guys weren't on that Fubar soundtrack? A glaring omisson indeed.
As much as I love almost everything on Anticon, the two MC's who can seem to do no wrong are Dose One and Sole. And on this, Sole's sophmore full length, he proves himself to be the one true Anticon visionary. Like all the Anticon records that came before, the production is out of left field, totally off kilter with unlikely loops and bizarre samples. But the production manages to stay totally head nodding and super funky. Unlike the hyper-production-centric Def Jux camp, here it's ALL about the flow. And the flow is mind boggling, a stacatto and relentless avalanche of tongue twisting, verbally dense extrapolations on white boy blues, hip hop haters, as well as ruminations on all sorts of more esoteric topics. All delivered in a manic whine-y white boy drawl. This is most definitely the future of hip hop, lyrically challenging, musically complex, totally original and weird as fuck. A contender for 2003 record of the year and it's still only January!!
What is it about New Zealand? And the ease in which New Zealand bands seem to be able to transfrom 'noise' into something more. Much more. Street+X is a duo, employing violins, microphones, organs and REALLY BIG AMPS in a tiny room. Totally mesmerising, hypnotic, dreamy, shimmery, noisy, dirgy, lo-fi, high-end, spaced out DRONE ala Sunroof!, Total, Skullflower, Birchville Cat Motel, Dead C, Gate, Vibracathedral Orchestra, etc. I never get sick of this stuff and this is some of the best I've heard, Fans of the above mentioned bands NEED this.
This is way more 'punk rock' that anything on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. The first two tracks are furious, sloppy blasts of distorted sludge. There -are- songs under there, but they have been torn to bits and spit out bloody and disfigured. The third track gets a little trancey and rhythmic but the sound is still chaotic and blown WAY out. The final track is sort of Stooges / Brainbombs meets the Dead C, with shouted vocals, burnt out guitars and white-noise percussion. Pummelling, damaged, fucked up noise rock. Seriously UNEASY listening.
Tangerine Dream's second album from 1971. While it is a bit spacier and more synth-based than predecessor "Electronic Meditation", it's structurally much the same as the first, with lots of moody dark improv drones weaving and building into mad psychedelic rock jams. Mostly the change apparent here is that various synths and organs move to the fore while guitars, flute and drums hang out in the back, only dominating the sound in the loudest, rocking passages. This domestic reissue includes a bonus track, "Ultima Thule Part 1", an epic rocking single the group released in 1971. This one's also remastered, w/ slipcase, & liner notes from noted krauthead Julian Cope.
Armed with a Radio Shack's worth of new electronic toys, including the then new Mellotron, Tangerine Dream begins to sound a weensy bit closer to their eventual state of synthesizedness. But I stress the word "weensy" here, as Atem (1973) finds Tangerine Dream still well ensconced in the same psychedelic free-rock realm as their previous three albums (Electronic Meditation, Alpha Centauri, and Zeit). Bizzare vocal effects aside, a smattering of guitar and percussion are all that remain of the acoustic age of Tangerine Dream -- flute having been replaced by Edgar Froese's Mellotron replication of them. Along with Froese's new beast, the group's new artillery included a couple EMS VCS3 Synthesizers for Baumann and Franke. The resulting sound is even more atmospheric and whispy than ever. The title track, a twenty minute meandering opus, is perhaps the most similar to their earlier sound, with its pounding drums steadily increasing in volume and speed during the first part of the piece. But even there the percussion is no match for the enslaught of multiple organs and synthesizers with their ever building chords which drown out the drums before settling into a dark, ethereal soundscape. "Fauni-Gena" is almost like Tangerine Dream's take on Pink Floyd's "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict", but heavier on the synths. The last track -- "Wahn" -- is probably the greatest anomaly in Tangerine Dream's ouvre, in which the trio practice their extended vocal techniques, laden with echo and accompanied by frenzied percussion and synths. This domestic reissue, like the others, comes remastered, with a slip case and liner-notes (though this time not by Julilan Cope, but by one Paul Russell.)
For those who still associate Tangerine Dream with sequencer dependent proto-nu-age music, here are a few domestic reissues of their crucial early albums which should dispel any further mistaken assumptions. Originally released in 1970, Tangerine Dream's first album "Electronic Meditation" is a totally way-out-there psychedelic tour de force featuring mainstay Edgar Froese, plus Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler -- kind of a krautrock supergroup though they didn't know it at the time! From improvised dark drones of amplified cello, electric guitar, flute, organ and drums to blasts of freak out noise to psychedelic fuzzed-out freak-out rock jams. Electronic Meditation is equal parts Algarnas Tradgrad and early Kraftwerk. Remastered, w/ slipcase, & liner notes from krauthead Julian Cope. Definitely a krautrock classic.
Stoner rawk alert! It wasn't easy, but we finally got a few import copies of the new release from Austrialia's Thumlock, sent over on the slow boat from Down Under. Maybe it's their fantastic/silly/crappy album artwork, or mystic/cryptic/ridiculous titles, but we dig this band. To be sure, their approach to the stoner rock genre is, well, kinda generic -- yet varied & interesting & well done. Urgent rather than laid back, Thumlock are a bit more 'metal' than most, with a flair for majestic riffs and Thin Lizzy licks tossed in among the Queens of the Stone Age style grungy desert rock and Monster Magnetic wah wah psych guitar jams.
Originally released in 1968, this disc brings together pieces composed during the first decade of the reknowned BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a groundbreaking sound laboratory that provided British radio listeners and TV viewers with avant-garde musique concrete interludes and wacky sound effects -- Dr. Who being their most well-known client. There's no Who here, but a broad range of other stuff, including music from a War of the Worlds dramatization, experimental radio plays, documentary soundtracks, and signature tunes for local radio stations. Back before computers and sampling, these recordings represent many hours of painstaking, clever work: 33 tracks composed by Workshop electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire, John Baker, and David Cain. Their heroic efforts are historically interesting, and a good listen to boot, which was always the intent. The cd booklet contains extensive liner notes and evocative photos of Workshop staffers amid their tape reels and sundry noise-making objects. The Workshop's second decade saw the introduction of synths, output explored on this disc's companion reissue, 1975's "The Radiophonic Workshop", reviewed elsewhere on this site/list.
A very original, wonderfully varied collection of uber-rare international "psych and progressive gems" of the '60s and early '70s presented by Lo Recordings, who've always brought us the cool cutting edge modern electronica. Lo has previously also delved into the past for library music / acid funk compilations...now they go waaaay out with these bizarro rock tracks, picked by British hip hop DJ Garreth Goddard (who records as Cherrystones for the Twisted Nerve label). Obscure artists on here indeed -- we had previously only heard Brazil's Rita Lee (of Os Mutantes) and Detroit R&B hard rockers Frijid Pink (with "Crying Shame", one of their best songs). Garreth's obsessive crate-digging has paid dividends here, making this the kind of comp you've got to get 'cause you'll never find these records OR reissues. It's all groovy, psychedelic, crazed stuff. Some other names: Taiconderoga, Black Cat Bones, Klaus Doldinger, Niagara, Breakout, Mecki Mark Men, Sunbirds, The Mogol, and more. Veering from free-jazz inspired horn soloing to heavy fuzz guitar riffs to spoken beat poetry, the stuff on here is all over the place yet is freaky, funky, fried fun that really seems to belong together -- kudos to the DJ. Awesome.
New, nicely packaged compilation of afro-beat from Ghana's golden era. Sound Way boasts that the 14 tracks included here from the 1970's are all extremely rare and previously unreleased outside of Africa. So if the Fela reissues and various Strut collections aren't enough, here's a nice addition to the collection. Includes a 16 page booklet detailing the history of Ghana's music industry.
Heads up! Irwin Chusid has unleashed another collection of what is sooo aptly described on the traycard as "ear-tingling outrephonics". Vibrant, electrifying, and yes often bizarre feats of sonic tunesmanship are contained within each of these seventeen tracks. If you've read the book and/or heard the first volume you probably have some idea of what to expect with this second compilation, but what's impossible to anticipate is the diversity of this unheard, absolutely earnest and untethered music. An acquired taste? Yes... many actually, but very rewardingly so. Andee took a particular liking to Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend's "You're Out Of The Computer", while Cup's ears were left a-tingling by the sounds of Shooby Taylor and The Space Lady. Who else will you hear? Thoth, Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson Parker, Dick Kent, B.J. Snowden, Luie Luie, and many more. Please consider yourself forewarned: some may make you giggle, some may make you uncomfortable, some may make you cringe. Others may be uplifting, inspiring or disturbing. Some may as Alvin Dahn's song simply states "drive [you] mad". While it can certainly be said that Volume One was a hard act to follow, Chusid has unearthed and assembled an exceptional selection of perhaps even more obscure oddities.
One of my favorite drone records in recent memory (Streets=X, see above) gets the remix treatment from a who's who of NZ artrock / dronerock / freerock artists. Birchville Cat Motel, Seht, 3rd Octave Band, AM and a bunch more, take the sound of the Street=X record, all droning shimmering high end skree, and try to make it their own. Birchville Cat Motel, smooths the edges and adds some humming dreaminess. Seht chops and pastes and adds the sounds of a busy highway. 3rd Octave Band turn up the volume and add some layers ofgrit and grime, feedback and amp buzz. Paul Wickham slows it all down and adds even more hum and hiss. A pretty amazing remix project in a world that certainly doesn't need anymore. It helps that the original was so goddamn good!!
The classic 1975 album reissued, chock full o' quirky and/or moody cutting-edge compositions from the the madmen (and women) who inhabited the legendary BBC Radio Radiophonic Workshop in its heyday -- you know, the folks responsible for all the electronic music on the Dr. Who TV show. So, you get all the mysterious whooshes and percolating scifi bleepage you'd expect. Sound effects and music converge here, utilizing the most advanced synth technology of the day (such as the EMS Synthi 100 'Delaware' machine, described as "massive"), and a lot of imagination. Combining electronically-generated sounds with tape loops and live instruments, tracks here range from spritely, happy video arcade pop toons to spooky, creepy soundcapes (or the disturbing gastrointestinal ambience of "Major Bloodnok's Stomach", track 8). Clever montage, music box melodies, and assorted mad-computer sounds abound. Unlike the other BBC Radiophonic Workshop disc (the '60s collection "BBC Radiophonic Music"), most of this was composed especially for this album, rather than taken from prior BBC productions. The musicians/technicans saw this as a chance to express themselves in ways not always possible in commissioned works (in stereo, for one thing, rather than the mono most broadcast work required), and certainly their experimental tendencies came to the fore. Pretty neat.
Trojan's latest collection chronicles the advent of reggae recorded entirely "within the golden shores of Her Majesty's sceptred isle" (as the liner notes poetically dub it.) The box takes as its focus the brief, though fruitful period between 1968 and 1972 (so you won't find any Matumbi, Aswad, or Steel Pulse here.) Reggae producers and artists in the UK have always had to play second fiddle to their counterparts back in Jamaica. The initial efforts in the UK were merely in importing and repressing popular hits from back home. Eventually, the success of expatriate artists in the UK would not lie in merely competing with those back in Jamaica, but by tailoring their recordings to the well heeled white audiences who were being turned on to these exciting new sounds. What you end up getting to hear on these three discs is a metamorphosis from carbon copy rock-steady rip offs like "The Duke All Stars" to the most bizarre sugar coated Top Of The Pops attempts that are guaranteed to force a Moe Szyslak "WhaaaAAAH?!" out of your gulllet. The first disc is all pre 1970's material and tends to tow the line straight out of the Duke Reid and Coxsone Dodd songbooks for the most part. There's even a reggaefied version of the Skatalites' "Phoenix City" by The Family Circle. Disc two finds the production in the new decade halfway between Lee Perry -- with his penchant for out of tune wurlitzer organs -- and a taste of what was to come, typified in The Music Doctors Jamaican styled rendition of Mungo Jerry's (one) hit "In the Summertime". The third disc however, presents a no-holds-barred attack on the charts with the most over produced -- strings, strings, and more strings -- reggae versions of the day's popular R&B, soul and country hits. One the weirdest is Delroy Williams' (sounding more like Andy Williams) version of "Down In The Boondocks", replete with slide guitar. But this doesn't even compare to UK's biggest unit mover Dandy's "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For", which pulls out all the stops with strings, Tijuana Brass-esque horns and back up singers galore. The set finishes nicely with a nice up arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1" by The Neasden Connection. Damn weird and kinda cool, if nothing else you can drop some of these seventies tracks on your next party mix and baffle the shit out of your guests.
Speaking out on social issues and healthy debates (or downright rhetorical battles) have both been long standing hallmarks of lyrical tradition in Jamaican music. Any number of dialectics in the form of a compilation could be eeked from the material streaming out of Jamaica over the last four decades. For its part, the Rude Boy phenomenon is as good a topic as any. The term applies to neer-do-well youths who began showing up to dances in the mid sixties to pick fights and otherwise spoil the fun of those out to have a good time. Their presence was troublesome in the least and tragic at their worst, as some innocent bystanders even lost their lives when shootouts erupted on the dancefloor. It's even been mythologized that the Rocksteady's formation came about as a direct result from the practice of Rude Boys intentionally dancing slow during the fast paced ska tunes; their aim to cause some unwitting couple to collide with them, giving them a reason to pick a fight. All claims to the myth's validity aside, it underscores the effect the Rude Boys had on Jamaica's musical climate. So it should come as no surprise that Rude Boys were weighed in on by just about everyone in the business: pro and con. On the one hand they were touted as heroes: likened to modern day Robin Hoods. But on the other, they were ruthless trouble makers who's victims were other poor black Jamaicans. Trojan puts together (once again exactly) 50 tracks from as far back as 1965 from just about everyone who was anyone weighing in on the issue: Alton Ellis, The Heptones, Baba Brooks, Desmond Dekker, Justin Hinds, Derrick Morgan, Lee Perry, Peter Tosh, John Holt, Johnny Clarke and more. I say "just about" everyone, because there is one name that is conspicuously absent from the list: Prince Buster. It was Prince Buster after all who started the -- as we would call it now -- flame war that makes up at least one disc full of songs on this three disc set. In 1967 Prince Buster recorded his notorious "Judge Dread", in which Buster holds court to sentence Rude Boys (aptly played by his band) to "400 years". The reason for this crucial song's absence (not to mention Prince Buster's follow ups "The Appeal" and "Barrister Pardon") I suspect is because Trojan records is too cheap to pay the licensing fee to include it on this comp (remember the Trojan Mod Reggae Box? Same deal), so an otherwise definitive collection becomes a bit of a half-assed attempt. Still, there are some great tracks on this set, and if you really want to hear all sides of the story, we've managed to get more copies of the Judge Dread album by Prince Buster on CD.
RealAudio clip: BABA BROOKS & HIS BAND "Guns Fever" [/audio/bababrooksgunsfever.rm]
What would a cd-r label be without a contribution from AQ fave Simon Wickham-Smith? And it seems like he can do no wrong. Two 35 minute tracks of shimmering, crystalline, high end tinkle, keening synth melodies, and warbly low-end pulses. Track one sounds like Sunroof! playing Ravi Shankar, or a raga version of Tubular Bells played by the Dead C. or something. A static, drone ritual with superdistorted vocals that wail otherworldly spirituals over the gorgeous din.
There's that kind of song / piece that I never get tired of, those epic, endless high end modern ragas, all wailing feedback ans upper register shimmer. That thing that Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!), Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel), Neil Campbell (Vibracathedral Orchestra), and a few others seem to be able to unleash effortlessly. Well, if you hadn't already, add Wickham-Smith to this exclusive group of noisemakers and use the second track on Dyro to make your case. This has everything you could want. Gorgeous, droning, gauze-y, otherworldly, transcendental and just fucking perfect.
Another Celebrate Psi Phenomena expat (having shared a terrific split cd-r with MCMS, now out of print) finds their way to our pals Last Visible Dog. Yermo offer up a glorious wash of cascading upper register dreaminess, like the sound of rubbed champagne glasses, crystalline and delicate, over an mesmerising thrum that subtly oscillates, creating an hypnotic almost-rhythm. The whole thing slowly builds in intensity until it's a howling storm of feedback and buzz, dotted with thick bursts of jagged NOISE, all washing over you in a wave of thick warm sound. Fans of Total, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof!, the Dead C and the like bset start paying close attention to Yermo, 'cause they have yet to disappoint!
