This here is the second solo album by Mr. Moe Staiano aka Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's found percussionist. Frantic, dizzying and cacaphonous, but not without its elements of structure surfacing every now and again to make the explosions of mayhem all the more impactful. Hyper spurts of music boxes, food pans, oil barrels, sheet metal, brake drums, plastic horns, slide whistles and numerous other objects (yes, including a kitchen sink!) as well as the more conventional guitars, cellos, bass, thumb pianos, contrabass, vibraphones, drum machines, clarinets, musical saws, theremin and drums. There's some seriously twisted yet totally tight rhythmic interludes going on here - just as we've come to expect from Sleepytime G.M. not to mention their previous spectacular incarnation Idiot Flesh. Other slower, more haunting/haunted moments that take place deeper into the album brought to mind Nurse With Wound and Mr. Bungle. These tracks were actually recorded back in 97/98, but are just now seeing their release. However, Staiano does acknowledge this tardiness in his liner notes: "This is a Late album. It is dedicated to those who wait." A wonderfully bizarre listen.
New full length recording from this Portland (Oregon) seven + piece, and yet another (successful thankfully) wedding of indie rock and electronica. The album begins gradually -- emerging from crackling granular noises, tones, beats -- before exploding into what sounds at first almost like Death Cab For Cutie. It's mostly Corey Ficken's vocals that strike an amazing resemblence to Ben Gibbard's. Aside from that, the closest the Swords Project gets to Death Cab For Cutie would be hearing the latter under a heavy dosage of laudanum. The vocals of the Swords Project play only a minute part, weaving intermittently in and out of their spacey, meandering song structures. If anything they're closer to the realms of the more recent efforts of the Appleseed Cast. While the Rhodes piano adds a nice touch to their sound it's the violin that really earns them a firm handshake. We're impressed by their ability to absorb violin into an "indie" rock ensemble without sounding like a dour and pretentious chamber rock outfit. Very nice!
On his latest solo album, the distinguished gent David Sylvian is joined by guests guitarist Derek Bailey and Christian Fennesz for an elegant and understated, hazy and mesmeric, minimal masterpiece. Never that much of a Japan fan, and to be quite honest, not all that excited by any of Sylvian's previous solo albums, I (Andee) have to say this record blows me away! It's so slow and dark, and gorgeously ephemeral. The songs are barely there, just these luciously hazy expanses of dark and shimmery sound, quivering echoes of reverbed guitars, and smeary wisps of warm harmony, with the vocals lazily draped atop the rich sonic tapestry, melodies unfurling at their own, slow motion pace. The overall sound and structure are very reminiscent of Mark Hollis' brilliant and barely-there solo record from a few years back, but the vocals remind me quite a bit of Mark Eitzel, in timbre and in delivery, but much more slurry and world weary (if that were possible), and fronting Stars Of The Lid or Oval instead of American Music Club. And while Fennesz is only on one track here, you wouldn't be faulted for thinking he was all over this record, as there's plenty of glitchy lushness and processed warble that bears quite a resemblance to his laptoped guitarscapes. My only complaint, and I'm sure I'll get a ton of grief for this, is Bailey's guitar playing. It still sounds to me like a third grader picking up a guitar for the first time. And it comes dangerously close to disrupting the late night lovliness and effortless fluidity of the record. Luckily, Bailey's 'purposely' retarded plucking gets absorbed into the swampy, swoony lushness that surrounds it. For a record I hadn't even planned on listening to, this is turning out to be one of my new favorite late night listens! Highly recommended.
Released on Sylvian's own label Samadhi Sound.
Pink Skulls is a new cd-r label run by Glenn Donaldson of Jewelled Antler, for stuff that's too "punk" for Jewelled Antler to put out. A recent list's Record of the Week, Leaf Yard, was one of Pink Skulls' first releases (if you've heard that, you know that what Glenn means by "punk" sure ain't Green Day). Now comes the Teenage PanzerKorps, a band which actually features Glenn himself (under the name Edmund Xavier) in its ranks. This lil' 3" cdr looks a lot like the stuff in the on-going Jewelled Antler "Library" series, but sure doesn't sound like Thuja or Tomes or even Dead Raven Choir. It's raucous, droney, arty rawk with a German singer (a 40-year old punker going by the name Bunker Wolf here). Bunker and Xavier and joined by drummer "Catholic Pat" Toves and Boy True on bass (quite possibly actually Jason Honea, who's a member of the Knit Separates with Glenn). Loud (or at least distorted), not too fast, and Teutonically snotty: nine songs in as many minutes, with titles like "Burma Crawl", "Chinese Machine Gun parts 1 and 2", and "Get Out Of My Shadow!". It references '80s downer artpunk (The Fall, Factory Records stuff I guess or maybe some of Savage Republic's tracks), '60s garage with fuzz organ, and the hardcore bands Boy True and Catholic Pat used to play in. Noisy breaks, abrupt edits, and poppy grooves are all important to Teenage Panzerkorps' sound, but it's Bunker Wolf's accent and delivery that stands out the most. No fake German here like Zeigenbock Kopf! Then there's Glenn. He proved in his old band Mirza's more loud, scree-filled moments that he can do the aggro guitar thing, yet his sensitive side is still in evidence here, so his 6 & 12 string guitar parts here betray an indie-pop influence as pretty as what he's come up with in such outfits as The Birdtree, The Knit Separates, Blithe Sons and even Thuja (with whom Teenage Panzerkorp at least share a partly improvised approach). An interesting blend of inspirations/expertise to be sure. These guys recorded this for fun a couple years ago, and have finally found a proper outlet for it, which is cool 'cause it's pretty great.
When this AQ-fave electronica artist makes music, he rarely disappoints, having released four stellar albums of music -- never boring, always innovative and instantly recognizable as his own. So it stands to reason that the same care and no-filler attitude would follow for any remixes or collaborations. And that's mostly true here, thank goodness.
Five brand new collaborative tracks (with Steinski, Kid Koala, Doubleclick, Bonobo, and P-Love) although with the exception of Kid Koala's, where plucked strings make one woozy with Koala's trademark seasick style of turntablism, none sound all that remarkably different from your normal high-quality Tobin tracks.
The four "Verbal" remixes fare a lot better ("Verbal" being the stellar, manic hip hop flavored second track on Tobin's recent full length Out From Out Where), each participant enhancing the track with their own sound. Prefuse 73 turns in an even more cut up, yet somehow surprisingly smoothed out, lounge-ified version -- very good. The Bay Area's own Kid606 exhibits great love for dancehall. And Philly producer Boom Bip somehow makes the track serene with the use of floaty Aphex-ambient-y chords.
Definitely worth your money if you're a big fan. But if you don't at least have a couple of Tobin's other full lengths, get those first.
This Pathless Land contains five moody latenight multilingual tunes, and certainly leaves you craving more! Subtle, smoky and just a little bit mysterious and trippy. The second song "Western" is a definite stand-out bringing to mind the wonderful duets of Serge Gainsbourg and Francoise Hardy or Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra. In-store play never fails to draw more than a few customer queries. A very impressive follow-up to their Que Son los Trolls y en Que Nos Ayudan? cd from a couple of years ago!
Finally, the first Troum record to be widely available in the United States, released through Relapse subsidiary Desolation House, and we're pleased to say it's maybe their best yet. Troum are the ambient-drone ensemble that emerged from the dissolution of proto-industrial dronesters Maeror Tri. Unlike the primarily guitar based whir and rumble of Maeror Tri, Troum obfuscate their sound sources, laptops, found sounds, accordians, guitars too maybe, and the results are timeless, mysterious, haunting, ethereal and utterly breathtaking dronescapes. Sigqan is a lengthy three part epic, beginning with rich sonorous foghorn like swells, that ebb and flow, separated by near silence, and slowly building in intensity from warm crescendos to huge doomy pulses. Eventually, these roaring rumbles joined by complementary shimmers of high end, that sound out, and then dissipate like sonic ripples, fading into blackness. The swells slowly grow closer and closer until the edges begin to blur and a subtly more continuous melodic framework begins to emerge and so begins the second movement, a creepy and slightly ominous, slowly fluctuating slow-motion-melody, whose lazily shifting notes keep the sonic landscape dense and rich, and keeps the sounds from flatlining into monochromatic drones. As the piece winds down, the dynamics and melody start to smear together into a warm, diffused fuzzy hum, with the subtle traces of melody sinking deeper and deeper into the dark warmth. The third and final movement was a sonic afterthought, added/recorded later than the first two, but is a pleasantly dreamy coda, with a slightly sunnier tone, a keening upper register melody, stretched out into subtly slithering iridescence with a shuffling, staticky rhythm just below the surface. So nice.
Acid Mothers Temple. Acid Mothers Temple. Acid Mothers Temple. Ok, this isn't precisely the Acid Mothers Temple, but it is almost: Tsurubami is a trio featuring two Acid Mothers Temple members -- shaggy guitar guru Makoto Kawabata and equally hairy bassist Higashi Hiroshi, plus drummer Emi Nobuko (not so shaggy, but real cute if we may say so). And this disc was recorded *at* the Acid Mothers Temple, it says. So, to resume: Acid Mothers Temple. Acid Mothers Temple. Acid Mothers Temple...You are, once again, falling into a trance. Don't focus, just let go. The wash of Tsurubami's overpowering psychedelic guitar intensity contributes to your state of utter noise-lovin' bliss. The corresponding quiet passages of pretty, melancholic shimmer and shiver pull you deeper and deeper into what brain scientists call the AMT-zone. At 66 minutes in length (four tracks -- they're stretching out and so can you) this band's krautrock-inspired, avant-hippie psychedelic improv ought to be a sufficent AMT-fix for the week, we'd think. And "Tsukuyomi Ni" arrives with appetites for their particular brand of guitar-freakout mayhem and droned-out improv pre-whetted by the recent proper cd release of their second (?) album "Kaina", reviewed here just about a month ago (and previously, last year when it was but a cd-r). This brand new document of their live, no-overdubs sound is equally transcendent. It's released by Riot Season, the same label that just brought us that Mainliner reissue, so you know they know what's good.
Local, retro-aggro-post-punk-funk ensemble Tussle have been wowing audiences here in SF for a couple of years now, their music a catchy instrumental brew that recalls such early '80s sonic compatriots Liquid Liquid, A Certain Ratio, ESG, and modern practitioners such as Outhud, !!!, etc. Led by clattery organic percussion -- handclaps, skittery cymbals, assorted metallic stuff over a stripped down traditional kit -- and a cheerful rubbery bass, the sound is augmented with occasional guitar and effects embellishments. It's a hip, ramshackle groove that if executed more precisely would be too cold -- thankfully this is organic, warm, lowkey and non-attitudinally approachable, know what I mean? Dubbed out remix on the b-side, which hints at further sonic explorations to come -- their full length set for this winter contains krautrocky workouts and more out sounds.
GORGEOUS cover art by local artist Chris Johanson, honestly one of the nicest pieces I've seen by him.
This is a rather good collection of 22 tracks taken from the consistently great Fat Cat catalog, plus five previously unreleased ones (including one by SIGUR ROS). Fat Cat has released a lot of navelgazing music, especially at their start, but have since branched out and in doing so are forming their own wideranging aesthetic particular to their own logic (as all good labels should do). It's almost all uniformly slow to midtempo, ranging from bedroom electronic melancholia like that of Transient Waves and Mice Parade; to the abstract deconstructions of Fennesz; to the outer edges of postrock and/or postfolk typified by David Grubbs and Set Fire to Flames; to exuberant post punk of Programme, Giddy Motors, and Party of One; to the noisier experimentalism of Black Dice and Xinlisupreme. But none of the Fat Cat stuff ever gets too 'out there', if you know what I mean, so in that nice way it's a great safe label to trust, especially if you're wanting a listen on the more accessible side of nonetheless experimental genres.
With all of the abovementioned artists, plus Kid606, Matmos, Bjork mit Funkstorung, the Dylan Group, Mum, Grain, Sylvain Chaveau and more.
This is a pretty wicked sampler of artists on Lex records, an imprint of Warp that specialises in hip hop, and who brought us the totally amazing Boom Bip 'Seed To Sun' record a while back. Features selections from the first handful of Lex releases as well as exclusive tracks from a bunch of non-Lex folks. Tracks by Boom Bip, Sage Francis, Why?, Peaches, Edan, Tes, Supersoul, Madlib, Jaime Lidell and loads more. Once again packaged in a cool Lex Records-style embossed slip case, this time done up all graffitti style!
Ok, I know what you're thinking. A remix record?!?! A Merzbow remix record fer chrissakes?!?!? But c'mon, look at who's on this, it reads like an Aquarius who's who: Boris, When, Ulver, Fennesz, Sunn 0))), Hrvatski, Pita, House Of Low Culture and more! And they are remixing one of the best Merzbow records of recent memory, Frog. Surprisingly, all of the "remixes" are pretty cool, but the best results come from folks taking Merzbow's 'noise' in a decidedly more drony, dreamy, minimal direction, as opposed to making -his- noise sound more like -their- noise. Sunn 0))) offer up a gorgeously gritty, minimal rumble-scape, warm and languorous, with far-away guitars and slowly building static that threatens to, and eventually does, disrupt the murky ambience. Ulver minimalise as well, creating a grinding, lethargic rhythm from static, and slight blips of Merz-noise, all under a creepy, horror movie landscape of, ghostly theremin-like wails and warbly minor key melodies. And When take the noise, turn it way down until it's just soothing static, add distant carnival music, chirping cricket like sounds, a heartbeat like pulse, with occasional monster sounds (or maybe croaking frogs, but slowed down they sound like monsters!), rumbling, groaning and creaking ominously as proceedings build in intensity. But it's the Boris track that really makes this all worth while. An epic 20 minute dirge, with glacial guitars throbbing and moaning, creating a doleful, funereal threnody that sounds like Earth or Sunn 0))) buried under waves of shortwave static. The slow motion riffs stretch waaaay out, wailing mournfully almost like whale calls. So beautiful and haunting. Not bad for a remix record! Packaged in a gorgeous psychedelic fold out sleeve.
Tigerbeat6 offer up a stunningly eclectic compilation to make your head spin, and with a price tag that won't make your wallet whimper! Two dozen tracks ranging from the hi-tech to the lo-tech, the sophisticated to the positively nerdy. Starring DJ Rupture, Stars As Eyes, The Bug, Com.a, Numbers, Cex, Total Shutdown, Electric Company, The Rip-Off Artist, Crack We Are Rock, Knifehandchop, Nudge, Terminal 11, Nathan Michel, Caro, Dwayne Sodahberk, Max Tundra, Original Hamster, Zeigenbock Kopf and of course Kid 606.
Second in this series of 12"s collecting the crashing, crunching, bashing smunching, thrashing...ummm...twunching(???...well you know what we're getting at) sound of todays electronic underground. The tag team format is still enforced, foisting some of our favorite noisemakers on, well...some of our other favorite noisemakers!! Lesser gets chopped and spanked by Venetian Snares, Kid 606 gets bum rushed by Dat Politics, Knifehandchop gets sliced and diced by new-to-us 0=0, also-new-to-us CB4 gets schooled by Kid 606 (again) and two tag team match-ups offer up some more fresh faces: Casino Vs. Japan and Nudge whip up a little rhythmic hypnotronica workout while Fanny and DJ Paedophile bring the (caustic, face-melting) noise. Pretty cool.
Another super-priced Merge Records sampler jam-packed with fourteen songs by all of your fave Merge artists. Take a gander at this list of delights who grace this third volume of Survive And Advance: The Clientele, Lambchop, Portastatic, Buzzcocks, East River Pipe, Spoon, The Rosebuds, The Karl Hendricks Trio, and Matt Elliott. Oh my! The aforementioned nine have all contributed previously unreleased songs, while the remaining bunch are soon to be released (Ladybug Transistor, Matt Suggs), a live radio recording (Crooked Fingers), or sadly out of print (M.Ward). Only one doesn't fall under any of these departments, that is the album track from The Essex Green, but we'll excuse them 'cause this is such a dandy compilation regardless. Yay!
Okay, at the risk of sounding like a bunch of Trojan solipsists (which we're not, really), this new Trojan Box is super fucking great! Quite simply, the concept behind this anthology assembles reggae tracks with Nyahbinghi accompaniment. Nyahbinghi is the name of the original Rastafarian sect, and the African based drumming that accompanies virtually all of its ceremonies -- most Nyahbinghi grounations. While today Jamaican commercial music and Rastafarianism are virtually synonymous, the two haven't always been so cozy. In 1962 when Prince Buster brought Count Ossie and his drummers into the recording studio to back up the Folkes Brothers on their version of "Oh Carolina" it was considered a revolutionary concept -- Rastafarians being cultural pariahs at the time. It wasn't until the roots era of Jamaican reggae well into the seventies that everyone was dreading their hair in locks and going rasta. But even then, whether for commercial, aesthetic or logistic reasons, Nyahbinghi drumming didn't permeate the rhythm section of reggae the way rasta conscious lyrics took over the vocals. Nonetheless, there were still miles and miles of examples of Nyahbinghi drumming wed to reggae laid down on tape. With that in mind, Trojan has assembled a very nicely priced introduction to some of the more prolific users of the form -- such as Count Ossie and Ras Michael -- some classic commercial moments -- Jimmy Cliff's "Bongo Man" and plenty of rare tracks. With the exception of 6 tracks from the late sixties, the recordings on this set were made between 1970 and 1975, the golden era for roots reggae. Highly recommended!!
This is a nice one. The Locust label has gathered together a quartet of today's notable, underground guitar experimentalists, all of whom are quite fond of the classic Takoma label solo guitar sound -- the "deltadelica" (their word) explored thirty years or more ago by guys like John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke. Paying tribute to that Eastern-tinged, American-folky tradition, there's Virginia's Jack Rose, whom you might know from drone-psych outfit Pelt and Appalachian folk twangers the Black Twig Pickers; obvious choice Steffen Basho-Junghans of Germany; Japanese "onkyo" guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama; and Sun City Girl Rick Bishop, excuse me, Sir Richard Bishop. During the 70 minutes of "Wooden Guitar" each one of 'em provides a lengthy, hypnotic acoustic guitar performance, totally unaccompanied. Actually Basho-Junghans appears twice, everyone else just once. Let's take a look-see... Rose's "Red Horse II" is a sad and lovely 14+ minutes of vaguely raga-like 12 string strumming n' picking, densely textured yet light and exactingly pretty. That's followed by the first of Mr. Basho-Junghan's two contributions to this compilation, which continues in much the same vein as Rose's -- it's even called "A North Thuringian Raga". The Berliner is a virtuoso and this is a fantastic, meditative track indeed. Next up, Tetuzi Akiyama's piece is a lot sparser and more "abstract" sounding than what's come before, less in the Takoma style (yet still in its spirit, and latter-day Fahey would certainly approve). Appropriately, it's called "Time Between" and is the longest cut on here, at over twenty minutes. It slowly, stumblingly, somberly unfolds. Haunting, raw, and quite beautiful, it's a masterful centerpiece to this collection. Basho-Junghans checks in again with a shorter piece, the five-minute "Smiling Penguins". Repetitive and bright, it sounds like some sort of thumb-piano minimalism. Then, we're into the home stretch with the final piece on "Wooden Guitar" -- Sir Richard Bishop's quarter-hour "Corpuscle" which encompasses dusty spagetti western Morricone, acoustic Jimmy Page, and flamenco flourishes. It's a grand finale for this disc for sure, and this disc itself is grand. Essential to anyone into sheer impassioned, inventive, gosh-darn gorgeous solo acoustic guitar playin'. And it's packaged with an eye to the old Takoma LPs -- this cd comes in a embossed, silkscreened cardboard sleeve, very nicely done.
Short, two song blast of skittery, noodly, spastic breakbeat weirdness from Canada's biggest breakcore/drill and bass export. One side is funky and skittery, with blooping bass, and warbly melodies not unlike the VS we're used to, the other is an all new direction, a sort of jazzy fusion-y funk workout, complete with slap bass, and little bursts of soulful horns as well as a latin percussion breakdown about halfway through. Think Squarepusher meets Mahavishnu meets Tito Puente. Cool.
This is a split release if there ever was one. Two bands and SIX labels!! Indie labels Up Jumps The Devil, Vegalia, SNSE, Muet, Ignivomous and Nihilist all pitched in to bring us this tag team match of NOISE NOISE NOISE!!! First up, psuedo-industrial noiseniks, Factrix worshippers and AQ faves Wolf Eyes offer up a churning throbbing rhythm built from moaning low end organs, a sort of chopped-up hiccupping drone, that quickly splinters into FULL ON NOISE, pink noise and white noise battle feedback and rhythmic pulses of industrial crunch and midwestern style Japanoise. Panicsville, who we aren't so familiar with, present a very Wolf Eyes like din, that starts off innocently enough with bleeps and bloops and clicks and whirs, but soon erupts into a crushing tidal wave of rumbling, warbling drones, malfunctioning-video-game crunch, screeching feedback and distorted howls and screeches. Recorded live too, as far as we can tell. A seriously solid split of blistering brutality. Those of you who need this know who you are! Cool, gory cover art and swirly grey vinyl! ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
An obscure late-sixties ahead-of-his-time visionary gets his due with this LP reissue. A while back, the Get Hip label released two songs by Michael Yonkers on a 7" and a compilation and that started the buzz. Yonker's stuff was like nothing anyone had heard back then (or even now, really): fucked up garage psych with dementedly genius lyrics and crazy acid-fried guitar. Now Destijl has released the whole LP, that was originally recorded in 1968 but then quickly shelved almost before it had a chance to be heard. Yonkers, a legendary Minneapolis-area figure, built his own effects pedals, cut his Fender Telecaster down to a plank, and played like no one else ever. I'm at a loss of words on how to describe this. It's sort of like a fusion of stripped down Black Sabbath, The Troggs, Pere Ubu, and The Cramps?? Or something like that. Definitely something to check out. Vinyl only.
