A little over 8 minutes total, 11 songs, each clocking in at WELL under a minute. That's all you need to hear to know that the curiously monickered An Albatross have sent The Locust to the back of the new-wave-metallic-skronk line. All of the elements that make us love The Locust, AA have in spades, but they also have some chops that The Locust don't, mixing in some seriously damaged, ultra complex prog, impossible math rock, and some almost black metal bursts. Think The Locust battling Melt Banana to the death, but with the guys from Orthrelm blasting Italian prog on their boombox and throwing rocks from a safe distance. Insanely chaotic, ultra precise, massively heavy, brutally noisy, and pretty fun n' catchy too. It's over before you know it, but you'll still feel like you got your $10 worth. Especially if you listen to it 6 times in a row like I just did!
Beequeen is the duo of Freek Kinkelaar and Frans De Waard, whose name you might recognise from his other projects, Goem, Shifts, Kapotte Muziek and a bunch more. Can't say I have been all the taken with most of De Waard's projects, but for some reason Beequeen records always hit the spot. The sound of Beequeen has been anything but static, with two musically restless souls exploring all aspects of sound and recording, coming up with extremely varied results, most actually quite appealing, but Gund, a collection of old unreleased tracks finds Beequeen at what I think is their perfect sound, dreamy drony, hypnotic, minimal throbbing shimmerscapes of dark rumbles, ethereal wisps of high end incandescence, and subtly shifting, distant low end murmurs of rustle and thrum, that will most definitely tickle the cochlea of even the most discerning of drones fans, and of course folks who can't get enough Coleclough, Mirror, and the like. This collection assembles four tracks from a proposed 12" where all four tracks were to be cut at different speeds, 16, 33, 45, and 78 RPM (eventually scrapped due to the difficulty in pressing such a record) as well as two tracks from an aborted collaborative split with MSBR. Really beautiful stuff. Limited to 500!
The Brooklyn art-rock outfit Black Dice has an affinity for farting squiggles of electronic noise that left to their own devices would be very ugly and not very listenable. But Black Dice's 'Cone Toaster' single -- like its precursor album Beaches and Canyons -- salvages those sounds by interlacing them into really simple, tranced out percussive grooves and recalls the hyper-real esctacy and whimsically plastic psychedelia of The Boredoms' Vision Creation Newsun. Coincidentally, Yamataka Eye of The Boredoms is rumored to have contributed to the 'Cone Toaster' track. And Eye did in fact remix the b-side 'Endless Happiness' which comes from the Beaches and Canyons album. Released on the uber-hip DFA Records, so you don't need us telling you that this is cool. You already know.
Hurray, it's a new album from this Bay Area duo! Ever since Kirsten Capricorn brought in their debut cd In The Zone last February it's been a very consistent seller, and this sophomore effort seems primed to follow suit. Filled with bittersweet odes to sweethearts and heartaches, it's still keeping with their beloved lo-fi '80s Casiotone preprogrammed drumbeats and arpeggiated peppiness. Their vocals are much more self-assured and expressive this time around, but still within the same range as Corin Tucker's emotive warble. On a couple of songs though you might also find them a bit reminiscent of the GoGo's Belinda Carlisle too. Super fun and high spirited!
... are brothers Jake and Josh Housh. Jake can also be heard in the band Moviola, while Josh can also be heard in Our Lady The Highway. They took some time out from their respective bands to get together for a little acoustic family gathering. The result? A baker's dozen of rough-hewn gentle twang tunes full of brotherly love. Very homespun, earthy and warm which extends to the packaging too - a delicately hand-printed white cardboard jacket. Oh and they thank they're folks and family in the liner notes too. Awww!
We (along with a who's who of indie and not so indie luminaries) have been Vic Chesnutt fans for years now, ever since his first album Little dropped way back in 1990. Wheelchair bound and ornery as a beehive, Chesnutt's dusty downtrodden tales are suffused with a warm sweetness that contrasts well with the gruff attitude. And since Little, Chesnutt's albums have each gotten more mellow -- in a good way, like aged whiskey. At some points on this record he reaches Neil Young-strata levels of confidence and maturity. Wow.
Compared to earlier works, Silver Lake is less willfully eccentric, and worlds more focused and POWERFUL. Recorded in some mansion above Silver Lake in LA with a full band and a nice complement of additions to your regular rock guitar bass drums formula. It's, for example, delicate with lonely tambourine, autoharp, poignant piano, pedal steel, lush backup vocals... but it's also heavy with majestic climaxes and downright wild guitar noisiness. A wonderful combination and then, of course, on top of that is Vic's unique vocal style, his gravelly, southern-accented growl/howl. Fantastic!
Perhaps indicative that he's not completely abandoned his peculiarities, the third song "Band Camp" made Cup think Mr. Chesnutt was doing his best Paul Simon impression (circa Graceland) while making wry references to the movie American Pie. Plus he also gets bonus Scrabble points for fitting the word "transmogrified" into his lyrics. For fans of Neil Young, Howe Gelb, Uncle Tupelo, Jayhawks.
MPEG Download: "Stay Inside" [/audio/chesnuttstayinside.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Stay Inside" [/audio/chesnuttstayinside.m3u]
MPEG Download: "2nd Floor" [/audio/chesnutt2nd.mp3]
Now available on vinyl! Here's what we had to say about the cd version:
The first thing (the only thing?) you need to know about this Bay Area band is that "electric destruction fuzz guitar" is one of their instruments of choice. Wielded by Ethan Miller, and sometimes also by important Comets associate Ben Chasny of AQ fave acid-folk act Six Organs of Admittance, their "electric destruction fuzz guitar", with help from the band's fuzz bassist and sweaty drum maniac, puts Comets On Fire squarely into the psychedelic garage punk realm, shoulder to shoulder with the likes of 60's heavies Blue Cheer, and modern-day Japanese distortion fiends High Rise. Your friends from college will understand better if you compare Comets to Monster Magnet -- they channel the same sort of MC5-ish ass-kickin' and Hawkwind-like space-outin'. And if Ethan (and Ben's) acid wah guitar leads weren't enough, the Comets take things to a whole 'nother plane of noise with the Echoplex electronic tweakery of Noel Harmonson. His overdriven oscillations multiply the freak-out quotient beyond numerical calculation. And live, his spastic jerking and clapping will occupy your attention visually, at least until the guitarist wrangles his axe into a feedback frenzy jammed up against his amp.
But, there's another side to Comets On Fire, besides the distortion and the garagey riffs. Their loud freak-out elements are only part of an ecstatic musical continuum that also allows for the free jazz / ethnic massed bells and chant of track one, "Beneath The Ice Age". Two songs later, Six Organs guy Ben takes center stage, starting "The Unicorn" off with some improvised acoustic folk. Beautiful. Don't worry, though, 'cause soon enough the electric destruction fuzz guitar is back in action.
"Field Recordings From The Sun" totally rocks, is totally awesome, and is the excellent follow-up (that we'd been eagerly anticipating) to their self-titled, self-released vinyl-only debut reviewed here last year. We sell a lot of Acid Mothers Temple, we should sell as many of these guys! And if you're local, go see 'em, we're lucky they're here.
Polish Texan avant folk experimentalist Smolken has released three cd-rs so far of his Dead Raven Choir output on the Jewelled Antler label. Now DRC makes an appearance on Jewelled Antler side-imprint Pink Skulls, with a disc that is just too nasty and noisy to fit in with the JA aesthetic... With "Sevenfold Songs Of Death" he really indulges his black metal inspired side, resulting in 32 minutes of what might be called noise-folk. It's as if you took all the most raw, distorted, shrill, buzzy, chaotically noisy parts of your favorite black metal albums, cranked 'em up to 11, and tried to pass it off as folk music (supposedly, all words and music here, with the exception of one song, are "traditional"). Sure, Smolken and his friends are playing mandolin and banjo and percussion, but all that's buried beneath so much grinding hiss and drone that if you listen to this at more than the barest, most minute volume you'll endanger your ears/lease/stereo/sanity (not necessarily in that order). A low volume, you can make out the folky melodies and scary vocals. Turn it up at all, and it's like Merzbow meets Abigor meets Kemialliset Ystavat... More evil atmosphere than even Abruptum, seriously. Apparently, this was originally intended for an aborted split release with AQ black metal fave Leviathan, and we'd have to say that Leviathan's probably lucky that he didn't have to go up against this!
Dead Science craft subdued, trippy rock with the incense plumage of Zeppelin, some jazzy post-rock, and an ample dose of Radiohead. Each song smolders slowly with the slinking guitar and stand-up bass weaving themselves languidly around the lilting, murmurred male vocals. Customers have likened the voices to a drowsy/druggy hybrid between Robert Plant, Joe Pernice and Thom Yorke, leaning heavier on the latter as the album progresses. It's not until the second to last song "Tension At Pitch" that the band's glowing embers totally catch ablaze. Would probably fit quite nicely alongside Pleasure Forever and Black Heart Procession for a late evening's entertainment - very heavy on mood and high on drama.
Massive double lp opus from this mysterious drone rock ensemble. Maybe drone rock is a bit misleading as there is very little rock to be found. So let's just say drone, shall we? After numerous cd-r's and limited lps the Double Leopards return with this gorgeous and expansive low end exploration. Rumbles and hums, shimmers and thrums, this is as perfect a piece of meditative, mesmeric drone as you're ever going to find. Like all great drone records, Halve Maen is a dense, thick nebula made up of layers and layers of sound slowly shifting and unravelling, revealing new sonic details on each listen. Murky wisps of rhythm, shimmering piano, distant chimes, warm reeds, and fuzzy static all surface occasionally. As the record progresses, the minimal spaciness intensifies, gets darker and gets louder, as the misty spectral instrumentation gathers steam and takes form, with propulsive rhythms and ghostly vocals emerging from the haze. So nice. Limited to 1000 copies. On nice thick vinyl in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve.
Hot on the heels of the exciting news that American Music Club are re-forming for a long awaited live show (Aug 21 at Makeout), here comes this leftfield project from Mark Eitzel. He was invited to play a live show in Greece, and ended up making a whole album with traditional Greek musicians as backup band. That's right, you'll hear mandolin, bouzouki, and tzouras right there along with the simple string section of violin, viola, etc. And the best news is... it's good! So reserve that pre-judgement tendency (ahem, I had to) and just listen. It's quite good. It doesn't "rock", mind you -- it isn't supposed to. This is more Eitzel than AMC. The unusual instrumentation adds a layer of pathos and real urgency to Eitzel's already stirring, deeply poignant tales of depression.
Song choices include two new pieces, and the remainder cover the gamut of Eitzel's career, with a healthy dose of older material such as "Western Sky", "Nightwatchman", "Last Harbor". A highlight is an almost sprightly version of that classic Eitzel downer "Take Courage". Recommended!
Lazy hippie jazz jamming that noodles and percolates along. Ektroverde has always been the 'jazzy' cousin of AQ Finnish faves Circle, a side project consisting entirely or almost entirely of members of Circle, often operating in much the same mode of hypnotic repetition, but with definite jazzier leanings. Well, this new Ektroverde disc is jazzier, and funkier, than ever -- saxes, as well as synths, to the fore! You've gotta dig some jazz sax to get into this, which otherwise could be a spaced-out, effects-laden Acid Mothers Temple improv. There's also the question of the vocals, not formerly a significant element of Ektroverde's sound. The Can-like vocal mantras sometimes work, sometimes don't, while Mika Ratto's occasional cod-operatics can simply make this seem like a mellowed-out, jazzed-up version of recent Circle. At its best, like on the lengthy track three, this is darkly moody and mesmerizing, but at its worst it's indulgent and kinda cheesy. Maybe this is one of those "if it wasn't Circle (or close to) would I want one?" conundrums. I don't know the answer to that, but I did like it enough to buy one. And it does boast awesome photos of extreme Finnish weather phenomena, along with the URL for a Finnish storm-chasers website. Storm-chasing is maybe a good analogy for what Ektroverde are doing here, merely getting damp in a drizzle as the album opens, then eventually catching up to the big storm as the second half of the disc gets more stretched-out and heavy. Maybe there's a rainbow in it for you...
More metalcore. We just can't get enough. And this is most definitely the next contender for best metalcore record ever. So heavy and weird and catchy. And by now you know we especially love the metalcore when it's generously dappled with huge chunks of goopy, heart-on-your-sleeve, mix-tape, lonely-boy, bittersweet and broken-hearted E M O! There's plenty of downtuned chugging, and blazing blast beats, half-time, moshed out breakdowns, wickedly complex, stop-on-a-dime metallic crunch, pummelling percussive tumult and squealing feedback drenched harmonies. And Evergreen Terrace do completely destroy. This is seriously one of the best metalcore records EVER. But where they really prove their mettle is in the melodic breakdowns... the EMO. They're just so catchy and bittersweet, tiny pockets of perfect pop, like a little bit of Sunny Day Real Estate dropped in the thick of an At The Gates record. So fucking great. Make sure and stick it out until after the final song, 'cause there's a hidden track, a wickedly metallized Depeche Mode cover. Which is so good it just makes me long for a metal band that could actually write songs like that instead of covering em. Until then, who wants to start a crushingly heavy metal band called Violator, that just plays Depeche Mode's Violater album start to finish. Get in touch.
This is the first issue of FO A RM, a magazine dedicated to "resonances among diverse mediums," essentially meaning sound art and its conceptual neighbors. The first issue presents writings on the subject of 'utility' from a range of approaches, from anthropology, experimental poetry, sound theory, and cultural reportage as well as several cross-genre works. FO A RM no. 1 includes new writing by sound-artist and researcher Giancarlo Toniutti, essays by composer Matthew Marble, works by noisician GX Jupitter-Larsen and sound-artist Seth Nehil. In addition, an original ode by prolific master Robert Kelly, instructional poems by mARK oWEns, and investigational works by Alicia Cohen, Holley Blackwell and Ashley Edwards, among others.
"Cross Purposes" is an half-hour of weird, spooky music from longtime AQ patron and obscure music-maker Ferrara Brain Pan. Yes, that's his name -- but here he goes by the Forms Of Things Unknown moniker, a suitably vague and creepy name for this disc of Gothic dark ambient experimentation, that seems to be vying for retroactive inclusion on the famed "Nurse With Wound list". Indeed, NWW's Stephen "Babs Santini" Stapleton makes a guest appearance somewhere on here (see if you can find it)!
The first track, evocatively named "Black Candles & Pentagrams 'n Shit", is sixteen minutes of sinister drone and wind instrument dolefulness. On this album, Ferrara plays bass clarinet, flutes, recorders, saxophones, along with various other mostly archaic and/or ethnic instruments -- and electronics too of course. Perhaps to illustrate that FoTU's influences are eclectic and extend back further than the goth/industrial heyday, "Black Candles..." is followed by an anonymous 14th century composition in both instrumental and vocal versions -- the vocal by lovely soprano Shannon Wolfe, not Ferrara. It's somewhat sombre, but not scary like the first piece. Rather beautiful. Then, again shifting gears and displaying esoteric influence, this disc's final cut turns out to be a moody cover of "Stupid Blood", a song from the Beast Box album by Howard Devoto's post-Buzzcocks band Luxuria. With one Bob Ayres handling the portentous baritone vox, and Ferrara's horns and flutes, this track could just as easily be taken as a tribute to Peter Hammill's Van Der Graaf Generator!
The super pretty and stirring full length from Four Tet begins with what sounds like a muted irregular heartbeat, the track then gradually fans out into an airy mingling of drum beat shuffles, glinting wistful piano melodies, chimey sparkles, reedy (oboe?) bleets, an occasional groovy bassline and a smattering of odd buzzing jolts. Actually the latter which happens only early on in the album closely resembles that sound when you slip up while playing that old board game Operation, and they're what keep the listener from completely drifting off on the mesmerizing lake of Four Tet. No complaints though, this album is quite simply a delight - layer upon layer of shimmering goodness that draws a very warm response every time we've played it in the store.
Glass Candy follow up their Love Love Love album with this 2-song slice o' vinyl, and it's a hottie! The A-side hikes things up a notch with a great new GC original "Bicicleta Emocional" - perhaps one of their best songs to date even - and the B-side is a fiery cover of Roxy Music's "Re-Make / Re-Model".
Ida No whoops and howls affecting her best Debbie Harry "Heart Of Glass" sultriness. Meanwhile Johnny Jewel leans into his electric guitar showing some strategic restraint in the placement of his crunchy riffing. Ginger Peach keeps the propulsive beat and some unknown presence hammers away at a piano lending an added bristling tension to this Portland, OR group's already raw, minimal art-punk sound.
Note: this is the black vinyl Troubleman edition, not the special Spanish pressing which reportedly was pressed on pink vinyl and included a magnet and insert.
Dave Katznelson, the force behind Birdman Recordings and one of AQ's favorite people, has the following superlatives to say about the (not-so) new Hagerty record:
"Record of the year so far... I was a huge fan of his debut solo record, and this new one, his third, might even surpass it. Neil's stoned playing (I know he is sober, but it's stoned all the same) which is as tight as it feels loose...is to these ears the new classic sound for the war generation. The songs are great. The live renditions of past solo material (Rockslide, Creature Catcher) is drony like CAN...Velvety grooves and dirt (alot of dirt). Firebase Ripcord is an all-out hit. I play this record for people who do not follow music and the look on their faces is, 'Wow...what a unique sound...what good shit.' The Rolling Stones don't do it like this anymore. Neil Michael Hagerty & The Howling Hex are creating such a fresh, new rock scenario, that it is bewildering that this man has ever been in a band before (Let alone the Royal Trux and Pussy Galore). The sound is a freshness you usually hear on a band's/artist's first record. It is sexy."
Who would've though this would ever come to pass?! Those of you who love things slow and sludgy and heavy, should be on your knees, thanking whatever god you pray to, for allowing this divine musical covenant to be placed in your dirty, filthy unworthy hands!
Harvey Milk were Atlanta's answer to the Melvins, but slowed waaaaaaaay down and spaced waaaaaay out. Songs so spare but somehow so impossibly heavy, riffs so thick that they threaten to clog your speakers and rhythms so stretched out that they can barely be called rhythms. Add in a serious free jazz + ZZ Top obsession and you've got the recipe for one of the greatest, heaviest bands EVER. They recorded two brilliant full lengths (with their original lineup), one of which was re-issued on Andee's tUMULt label a couple years ago. And we thought then, sadly that we had heard the end of HM forever. But along comes Relapse to save the day, collecting all of Harvey Milk's impossibly rare 7"s and compilation tracks onto one black-hole-heavy chunk of aluminum. Most singles collections allow you to trace the development of a band, watching them slowly turn into the band you already know and love, but this collection proves that HM spontaneously combusted, emerging from their tarpit womb a fully formed, lumbering, molten, sludge rock colossus. From plodding, 3 mph sludgy, dirgy Melvins's worship, to chaotic noisy caveman thud, to Codeine-ish slow motion mood rock, to spare, rhythmic bass and drums space-scapes with demonic, anguished howls and Hendrix like riffs dipped in tar and sprinkled with wild peals of head-shearing feedback, to semi-acoustic tear jerkers, with warbly barely-in-key vocals, I mean, they even do a fucking Peter Criss solo song! How brilliant is that! Harvey Milk confounds as much as they just flat out destroy. How the fuck does a three piece rock band actually sound like they're playing on the wrong speed?! It's as if the entire band had a pitch control knob, and they keep turning it down and down and dooooown. And playing drums for this band must be utter hell. Massive expanses of space, demarcated by pounding beats, spread so far apart they just barely make up a rhythm, with enough space between beats for the drummer to get up, go to the bar, have a cigarette, and make it back in plenty of time for the next beat. So minimal and hypnotic and difficult and heavy, it just blows all other sludge rock hopefuls back to the stoneage. And even in the context of a 'singles collection', songs that were never meant to be together on a record, this stuff falls so perfectlyinto place, you would never know this wasn't conceived as a proper record. Yet another testimony to the under-appreciated genius of the mighty Harvey Milk. Liner notes from AQ pal and Chunklet head honcho Henry Owings. Essential for those of you who love Boris, Corrupted, Earth, Sunn 0))) and the like, as well as their massively head crushing opus Courtesy And Goodwill Towards Men!
The band-not-person named Herman Dune is back, with their second release for US uber-indie Shrimper. From Sweden by way of France, Herman Dune's sound is part Velvet Underground, part Palace, part Mountain Goats, maybe even part Neutral Milk Hotel. The plaintive melancholia of their prior Shrimper album (and the in-between import "Switzerland Heritage") harbored much subversive, subtle humor. Dark humor. This time, the Herman Dune boys can be just as sad -- minor key guitar chords, doleful tempos, wavery vocals, heartbreak lyrics -- but at moments on this album do now get positively lighthearted. That's nice for them, but it makes some of this sound goofy -- the worst offender being "The Monkey Song", which we'll blame on the guests who helped write it. But they make up for that lapse into indie-jokester rock (which admittedly some will enjoy anyway) with the sheer melodic misery of songs like "Why Would That Hurt? (If You Never Loved Me)" -- featuring guest vocals from Julie Doiron, and a positively Faust-ian drum beat -- and "Taking Taxis In Winter Clothes" among others. So, definitely more hits than misses on here, if you're into the sort of ramshackle sad slacker-folk sound the Dune dudes purvey!
Have you ever opened a can of sliced pineapples, or tuna, and it smelled really bad? And you immediately knew something was terrible wrong? Well, clearly, things do not bode well for Him if there's an unpleasant olfactory metaphor to describe the "Many In High Places Are Not Well" album. Doug Scharin, once responsible for the mightly percussive pummel behind downer-core legends Codeine, has been orchestrating the post-rock ensemble Him during the past decade and unfortunately devolving into a sub-rate Bill Laswell. Now with "Many In High Places Are Not Well," Him emerges with an indeterminant "world music" feel: a dash of Afro-beat, a pinch of Brazillian jazz, and a Hawaiian slide guitar thrown in for the sake of diversity. The result is terminally bland music that has all of the global specificity of the Gypsy Kings. "Many In High Places Are Not Well" should go down as one the utter low points to the once vibrant Chicago post-rock community that spawned Tortoise and their ilk.
You don't even have to hear this to know this is another perfect Aquarius disc: A work for magnetic fields, weather satellites, custom built antennae and force fields. Whoo yeah! Force fields! Lucky for us, it sounds as good as we hoped it would. Very reminiscent of Stephen P. McGreevy's Auroral Chorus II: The Music of the Magnetosphere and Electric Enigma discs of VLF recordings of the Aurora Borealis and other atomospheric electronic phenomena. But Hinterding's recordings are even better, which is saying a lot, considering how much we LOVED those McGreevy discs! The elements are quite similar: staticky buzz, squeaks and whistles, rumbling whirs, clicking and chirping, buzzing hiss and warbly white noise, but on Spectral, those sounds drift and shift, causing all sorts of rhythmic variations and almost-melodies to emerge. There are moments where throbbing pulses and random clicks coalesce into minutely propulsive little micro-rhythms, that chug along until they slowly disipate into the ether. Also the overall sound is thicker, with a solid, warm, whirring drone, underpinning all of the various sonic activities, making this a little less harsh and a lot more dreamy and way more substantial. There's still lots of upper register skree, but it's nestled in a churning roiling bed of fuzzy, humming whir. Beautiful stuff. Proving once again, that no matter how hard we try to make strange and original music, nature was there first, doing it better.
What with all the eee-veeeel black metal we sell and celebrate, you might not expect us at Aquarius to go in for god-lovin' religious music as well -- well, you'd be wrong, at least in the case of this release, a collection of obscure '70s gospel sides by the Reverend Charlie Jackson that we do indeed like quite a bit. Originally released on 45s, circa 1970-1978, these vocal and guitar tracks haven't previously been available together on cd until now. Each one, whether an up-tempo bluesy rocker or a sparse, emotive sermon, radiate raw energy and spiritual enthusiasm. All the cuts feature Jackson on guitar, most also feature him doing the singing n' preaching, though there's a few where he's backing other vocalists like (his wife) Sister Frances Jackson and Brother Ike Gordon. This is juke-joint style Jesus music, dressed up for church to be sure but still real honest and rootsy. Compelling stuff.
This disc is the first release on Aum Fidelity's new Casequarter imprint, a new label run by a WMFU DJ devoted to rescuing and revitalizing the obscure gospel legacy of the deep south -- digging up rare 45s, documenting still-active practitioners, that sort of thing. This disc is a great start. We'll definitely be looking forward to further releases on the label, as they seem to know what they're doing!
The previous albums from Jandek have often re-visisted the chord progressions of delta blues and Appalachian folk. Of course, our Texas mystery man obliterated these archetypes into a raw expression of abjection, sorrow, revelation, and ecstacy, typified in "The Blue Corpse" and "Ready For The House." Jandek's 1993 release "Twelfth Apostle" finds him stripping away even those recognizable elements from his already spartan productions. Here, Jandek offers just an atonal fingerpicking and strumming of his acoustic guitar with his voice wavering against whatever musical grain might be in the music. A static patina of reverb and delay occasionally smears across some of the tracks on "Twelfth Apostle," sinking his voice further into the mix and making him sound much more detatched than on previous efforts. It's a very cold and impersonal facet of Jandek's complex cosmology that seeps out from his huge catalogue of records which he's been making since the late '70s. Seth Tisue's excellent Jandek web site offers the pithy remark that this album is "thorny and ambivalent." Well said.
If you were snoozing a few months ago [uh, kinda like we were...] when The Kills' full length debut Keep On Your Mean Side came out, then goshdarnit, you've gotta check out this hot lil' ep. This duo have been drawing plenty of White Stripes comparisons... and they're certainly not unwarranted. The Kills' sound is plenty trashy bluesy garage rock, but dare we say this pair have something a bit more interesting and darkly intriguing going on? The proceedings are also infused with a dramatic flair, a dash of hillbilly stomp and a hefty dollop of slouch 'n' slur in the ol' Royal Trux or X tradition too. This ep's title track comes straight from the album but it also includes two new ones as well as a video for the forementioned song.
Fans of DJ Shadow, Boom Bip, that recent Unagi disc, QBert, Madlib, Ninjatune label, Dr Octagon and all Dan the Automator projects: you will looove this. It's my (Windy) new favorite record. Now, in another review this week I wasn't at all ashamed in admitting that I don't know the material of Peter Gabriel, but let's make it clear that I haven't heard any other MF Doom material, and now the excellence of this King Geedorah album is going to make me have to go backwards to hear Doom's Operation Doomsday and all the other stuff. Anyway, this is hip hop, some of the best I've heard in a long time. Each track has the de riguer single hook that loops throughout, which can sometimes threaten to bore, but only in lesser hands. With Doom the hooks -- often soundtrack-derived orchestral, swelling piano and string dramatics -- are delicious so sustaining them creates just the most luxurious comfortable groove. And he adds ample doses of applied audio grit -- sudden glitches, vinyl static, disjointed drums, vocal snippets interspersed with the skills of several guest MCs -- that just enhance the casually pulled together feel of the album. It's not messily done, mind you, just flows so well that it seems effortlessly catchy and kickass.
Apparently, Basil Kirchin is a highly regarded, even legendary composer in some circles. Not surprising we hadn't heard of him as his only two recordings were released in 1971 and 1973 and disappeared without a trace. Some of you may recognise the name as it can be found on that legendary Nurse With Wound list of influences, and it doesn't take more than a few minutes of Quantum to see why. This recording, also from 1973, has never been released until now and is a pretty wild ride. Perplexing but quite amazing. Buzzing synth tones weave a warm and warbly melody while sweet female vocals, soaked in reverb, emote atop them (think Bjork mixed with Brigitte Fontaine), sputtering free jazz (courtesy of Evan Parker) lurches wildly over a swirling sonic miasma of industrial clatter, found sounds, voices and birds chirping, rumbling drones, strings and xylophones, roaring lions, creaking and scraped strings and grand tonal swells. And that's just part one! Part two starts off with the moaning, hysterical vocals of an old woman (his wife) mixed with the random voices of autistic children, before a regal trumpet call sounds out over a swirl of hissing white noise and turns into a nursery rhyme rhythm played by a calliope and accompanied by what sounds like a very simple jazz combo. Eventually the voices return, over a writhing bed of screeching free jazz, intensifying, and lending the proceedings a truly terrifying and disturbed vibe. The rest of part two skips schizophrenically from atonal modern classical, to Bjorkish ballads, to haunting dronescapes, to mad jazz-splatter, to Namtchylak-ish wild vocalisations. Gorgeous and haunting and WAY OUT. Hard to believe this was recorded 30 years ago. And hard to believe he's remained a secret for so long. But according to the liner notes, this is just the first in a series of Kirchin reissues. Can't wait!
If one were to take the logic of appropriative artists like Warhol or Rauschenberg, to the extremities of absurdity and dehumanization through the procress of mechanical reproduction, you would have Laibach. Perhaps the most misunderstood post-modern project to infiltrate pop culture, Laibach has often been associated with the proliferation of totalitarianism and Nazi culture, simply because they used those higly charged symbols and images and projected them back into the mass culture. However, Laibach's intent is to reinvest not just those symbols, but any symbol of authority and power, with the question of why is this symbol important to our culture. In many ways, Laibach was continuing in the same paths of inquiry found in their British compatriots Throbbing Gristle and The Hafler Trio; however, Laibach never cracked a smile, an attitude exemplified in their triumphant reinterpretations of the Beatles "Let It Be" as a series of miliaristic dirges and patriotic medleys.
"Rekapitulacija 1980 + 1984" was their first album, released as a double LP set with a beautiful series of reproduced woodcuts, offering portraits of the noble spirit from the agrarian worker married to the industrial landscapes, mirroring the same totalitarian artforms that had been thrust upon their native Slovenia during the Nazi occupation and later behind the Iron Curtain, when Yugoslavia was a Communist country. Despite this being their earliest set of recordings, Laibach's skill in the studio is tremendous, as heard in their epic piece 'Ti, Ki Izzivas' transforming Bernhard Hermann's soundtrack for "Psycho" into a punishing uber-motif coupled with a relentless drum machine pound and discordant organ blasts. Other tracks such as 'Brat Moj' or 'Smrt Za Smrt' are brooding no wave constructions, taking the best and most haunting elements of early Swans and early Cabaret Voltaire and fusing them into a skeletal anti-groove laced with growling vocals and commanding basslines.
But Laibach themselves have said it best in their early masterpiece 'Perspektive' : "By darkening the consumers' mind, it drives them into a state of humble contrition and total obedience and self-sacrifice, by destroying every track of individuality, it melts the individuals into a mass and a mass into a humble collective body... Our basic inspiration (ideals which are not ideals through their form but the material of Laibach manipulation itself) remains an industrial production, the art of the third Reich, totalitarianism, taylorism, bruitism, disco... The disco rhythm as a regular repetition, is the purest / the most radical form of the militantly organized rhythmicity of technicist production, and as such the most appropriate means of media manipulation." To hear this recited in the style of a Russian propagandist over a ominous thud of drum machines and triumphant Wagnerian horns, one can't help but laugh at the absurdity of such a statement; however, the logic quickly sinks in that Laibach are 100% correct. A brilliant album.
Perhaps the greatest and most challenging pieces of conceptual art disguised as a pop album. Truly awesome.
Lateduster are a pleasingly lowkey, soothing local combo, and guess what? We've got not one, but two cds by them in stock - this right here is their new five song ep. Neither release veers too far from their path of mellowness, if anything, these newer tracks are a bit more active and at times tread on more solid ground than those that came before. Five Easy Pieces shows Lateduster shifting gears somewhat, trading in the soft washes and sparse twang of their self-titled debut for a more sinewy electric guitar sound and a definite overall jazzy feel.
One of two Lateduster cds that we have in stock right now! This is officially their full length debut, but it's actually a collection of two new songs and six remastered ones which were originally released on two previous eps. Are we making things more confusing than necessary? Let's make things a bit more straightforward then and say that this Bay Area trio have made some lovely pastoral soundscapes - soothing lengthy ones that allow you to sink in for a good five to ten minutes. They done so by skillfully blending together drifting waves of spartan lanky guitars, programmed beats, gently grooving bass, shuffling percussion, and electronic hiss and sputter - locking in with each other for a spell, then dispersing into the mist. Very nice!
We sure have been under the spell of all things Sixteen Horsepower lately. Especially the amazing Woven Hand records, the solo project of 16HP frontman David Eugene Edwards. But don't think for a minute that Edwards is solely responsible for the creepy, dark, backwoods ambience of 16HP and WH! To prove that point, we've finally tracked down the first release from Lilium, otherwise known as Pascal Humbert, bass player for Sixteen Horsepower. Although this has been out for a while, we were only now able to get enough copies to list, direct from Germany, hence the import price. But it's worth every penny. All you folks who went mad for the Woven Hand will be equally enamored of this delicate and gauzy, spare and mournful cinematic swampscape, equal parts deconstructed country, skeletal folk and shimmering, ominous drone. The opening track is a rickety, bluegrass crawl, sounding like the dueling banjos from Deliverance, slowed down, caked in mud and leaves, and broadcast on a warbly victrola from the bottom of a well. The rest of the record follows suit, wallowing in darkness and shadow ranging from rumbling, reverberent drones woven from slowly shifting layers of oscillating tones and warm chordal washes, to shuffling, reverb drenched, Calexico-ish desert rock twang, to fuzzed out, keyboard drenched, hypno-minimalism, to almost-indie/post rock instrumental workouts, to dangerously forboding Sixteen Horsepower-ish Southern swampfolk. The whole record is swathed in a warm, dense ambience of melancholic mystery, grim gloom and eerie unease. Anyone who bought the Woven Hand records NEEDS this for sure. And folks who love the likes of Sixteen Horsepower, Calexico, Souled American, Scott Tuma, Court And Spark, Califone, Giant Sand, Black Heart Procession, or even Morphine, will find this bleak and beautiful twang, and these deep and doleful drones, will hit the spot perfectly.
At last, a reissue of the debut album from Japanese heavy psych trio Mainliner. It came out on Charnel Music in '96, but has been out of print for a long while now and with its unavailability has grown in stature. Of course, it's a great record, the one that Acid Mothers Temple were trying to emulate on their recent "Electric Heavyland" set. And yep, it does feature AMT's Kawabata Makoto on 'motorpsycho' guitar, along with free jazzer Hajime Koizumi on drums and bassist Nanjo Asahito of the legendary High Rise. Mainliner always was just a slight variant on the High Rise template (themselves a variant on the Les Rallizes Denudes template it seems), formed originally by Nanjo 'cause his High Rise bandmates were averse to touring and he wanted to take his rock on the road, or so the story goes. Anyway, this disc was Mainliner's first and best, all players outdoing themselves in the realms of psychedelic heavy garage improv distortion overload. So, if you missed it the first time around, now's your chance to experience this classic. It's nice to have it back in just 'cause now we're listening to it again and we'd forgotten how great it is. Rock!
MPEG Download: "Black Sky" [/audio/mainlinerblack.mp3]
If you made a graph of Japanese noisician Merzbow's career, the zig zagging lines of both consumer interest and product quality would definitely be on the ascendant of late, even as his volume of releases remains steady, and large. Here's another one, to be greeted with "yay, a new Merzbow!" rather than the "oh god, another Mezbow?" response that might have been appropriate a few years back. Nope, he's happenin' right now, and Animal Magnetism further continues these positive Merzbow trends.
The obi blurb provided by label Alien8 implies that this record is either inspired by Merzbow's pet chickens (as pictured on the cover) or utilizes them as a sound source for sampling. Perhaps. But pet chickens, pet rocks, whatever, you can't tell. Wildlife meets white noise? It works as a description anyway. As does: pulsing and grinding, in large part this disc is an attack of static somewhere between and beyond the distorto spazz of Lightning Bolt and a television set on the blink. Hissing, howling, and heavy, even haunting -- as noise goes, this is both wonderfully, uh, noisy, and interestingly varied. A lot is going on. It's not without layers of rhythm as well as texture. Really, Animal Magnetism approaches "music", psychedelic music, as close as Merzbow ever does. No disappointment!
Brand new band from our own backyard brings us 9 impeccable pop songs. Their debut album, "Here Comes The Monolith" sounds more like the work of a seasoned rock mainstay than a rookie's first time at bat. The Monolith successfully harken the sounds of Cheap Trick, Beatles, E.L.O., Big Star and more recently, The New Pornographers. The latter probably most noticably distinguished by the silky vocal harmonies present in every song. Superbly crafted pop arrangements with heart-snagging hooks, bridges & choruses filled with horn sections and strings are merely the icing on the cake. The cherry on the top is the gorgeous production that is so often sadly lacking from debut releases. Highly recommended!
Still more metalcore, and STILL we can't get enough. This is some seriously punishing, pummelling brutality. Plenty of death metal chug and that double kick/muffled guitar syncopation that drives me crazy no matter how many times I hear it. It wouldn't be metalcore without some sensitive emo-boy breakdowns, and there's some of that here, but those sensitive moments are brief, and before you know it are buried under a full metal crush, squealing feedback, pounding double kick, paint-peeling riffs, throbbing earthquake bass. On Broken Wings seem to have a thing for the half time breakdown, that slow-down-to-a-crawl, guitar tuned so low the strings hang loose from the fretboard, molten lava riff, with sub-human death metal grunt vocals, and Metallica's 'One' style double kick bursts. SO HEAVY. It kills me. A wicked wall of sludge, grinding and throbbing, before it erupts into a full-on metallic fist to the sternum. There's also some weirdly melodic post rock bits, but even those bits are slathered with massive drop-D (or C) riffs that mow down everything in their path leaving a stage full of destroyed equipment and a pit full of broken bodies. There's even a couple handclaps(!), that's right just a couple, dropped in the midst of the metallic maelstrom, but you'll just have to find those yourself. So good. Quite possible the heaviest metalcore record yet!
Ove-Naxx is not only the first non-Rupture project to be released on DJ/ Rupture's Soot label, but only the second release since Rupture's debut "Gold Teeth Thief" -- almost two years ago. If you suspected that such selective behavior from Rupture would signify a high level of quality control at Soot... you would be right on the money. "Bullets From Habikino...", the work of an up and coming Japanese artist known only as Ove-Naxx (or is it actually Rupture himself under a new name as someone we know recently surmised?), is a brutally beautiful 30 minute drill and bass opus. As varied in source material as Rupture's mixes, as dark and pummelling as Scud's dancehall blowouts, and as manic as any Wobbly channel surf freakout. Recommended.
Don't know too much about Mr. Plastic Crimewave (that's right Plastic Crimewave is the man, the PCW -Sound- is the band), do know that he is an underground psych rock guru from Chicago who has played with loads of Japanese psych rock legends and likeminded free/folk rockers like Charalambides, Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire, Pelt, etc. This five piece kicks out the jams, a sloppy, nasty, scuzzy, acid-fried, freak out psychedelia garage-grunge, with brief detours into drone-y lo-fi Velvets inspired gloom rock, rhythmic psych-folk, and even some shimmery, summery shoe-gazey space rock. Fans of Acid Mothers Temple will definitely dig this.
As you might have guessed from the review of Ektroverde's "Ukkossalama" above/elsewhere, and will shortly learn from this review, we have to say: the two new Ektro label releases aren't -exactly- our absolute favorites from our fine Finnish friend Jussi and his accomplices. Then again, that didn't stop Andee and Allan from buying copies! But Circle fans should know what they're getting into here: with the Ratto Ja Lehtisalo album it's a stab at vocal and instrumental synth pop (with lyrics like "heyheyshalalalalala") that features lots of Circle-lite spacerock synth-work. Cheesy '80s synths that is. Maybe they can't find cooler ones at the Finnish flea markets? Or maybe this is some sort of obscure and/or drunken joke. Not that it's *bad* or anything, we just don't understand, and would like it better if it wasn't so...smooth. It's very poppy and mild, with gentle psychedelic guitar leads spun out by Aki Peltonen (otherwise, as you might guess from the name, this is the duo of Circle bassist Jussi Lehtisalo and Circle keyboardist/vocalist Mika Ratto, here also playing drums). But fans of Circle's Neu!-inspired rhythms looking for a pleasant, sunshiney listen may well enjoy. It's nothing if not nice. So, check out the sound samples, see what you think...
This classic Redd Kross rarity finally gets re-released so Andee can once again gush endlessly:
I have loved this record for soooooo long. But I had forgotten just how long until quite recently when I was going through my high school senior yearbook (1988 if you must know) after my Mom reminded me that a certain suspected murder went to high school with me. So I looked, and did find Scott Peterson(!). I didn't really remember him, although I recognised his face from the news, but what I did realise was that my senior quote was almost entirely lyrics from THIS RECORD! What a geek! That was 15 years ago! And this record still totally blows me away! And why shouldn't it?!? This is one of the best indiepsychedelicpunkpoprock records ever made! Noisy and trashy and psychedelic but so totally clever and catchy and super rocking. Redd Kross took the perfect pop of the Beatles, the druggy haze of sixties drugrock, an obsession with all things kitcsh, brotherly love/hate (frontmen Jeff and Steve are brothers, who would often end up in on-stage fistfights!), the burgeoning eighties L.A. punk rock scene, youthful exuberance bordering on snottiness (Jeff and Steve were barely teenagers when the band started), a knack for crafting wickedly hooky songs and perfect sibling vocal harmonies (perfect in the sense that they were both whiny, and bratty and singing to the very edge of their range) into what I think is probably one of the best bands EVER. Neurotica is probably the record that best defines what makes Redd Kross so great and unique. Before Neurotica, they were a sloppy, chaotic mess, stumbling and screwing around and seemingly accidentally stumbling on perfect pop gems. After Neurotica, they became seasoned pop pros, getting more and more melodic, with better production and more money. Almost becoming a sort of hard rock / bubblegum amalgam. Transition records can be awkward, and Neurotica is a little, but that's what makes it so great. Leftover thrashy punk-rock-ness pops up amidst unbearably catchy pop sweetness, snotty fuck-you lyrics nestle right up against heart felt love songs, anti-Sunset Strip wannabe-rock-star diatribes ("No metal sluts, or punk rock ruts for me...Oh Noooooooooo") sit beside folky, beatniky acoustic-guitar-and-bongos odes to love ("You're my love, you're my happiness, you're the one, you're the reason why it's true. Ooo ooo ooo"), but for the most part this is wild and wooly, catchy and crazy, acid soaked pop-ified punk rock! And it's soooooo good!
As a founding member of the extremely successful group The Techniques, way back in 1962, Winston Riley probably could have retired at an early age. But, like many who'd started their careers under the production monopolies of Dodd and Reid, Riley eventually set out on his own to form his Techniques label. And while he never had a stable a fraction the size of Coxsone, he did have significant success. Most notable was his production of Ansel Collins' "Stalag 17" in 1973. Today the Stalag rhythm is one of the most heavily versioned rhythms on the island. But this collection doesn't cover either Riley's earlier work as a performer or producer. Instead, "Dancehall Techniques" compiles some of the producer's best work from the period between 1986 and 1991 -- the dawn of the digital era for Jamaica. 1985 saw the release of Wayne Smith's "Under Mi Sleng Teng" with revolutionarily minimal production by Prince Jammy -- the rhythm being no more than the stock Casio keyboard "reggae" rhythm. Like other producers, Winston Riley wasn't about to be left wallowing in the past. And while you won't hear the Sleng Teng rhythm used here, those who are ill disposed to listen to drum machine rhythms -- and a lot of rhythm recycling to boot -- might be advised to look elsewhere. The track that most all Aquarius customers are certain to be familiar with is Tenor Saw & Buju Banton's "Ring The Alarm Quick" -- itself a reworking of the Stalag rhythm. Also included on this comp are tracks from such household names as Super Cat, Michael Prophet, Cutty Ranks, Gregory Isaacs and Admiral Tibet.
Ruins fans! Here's a vinyl version of the now out of print cassette previously released by SF label Enterruption. The dynamic drums/bass duo of Tatsuya Yoshida and Sasaki Hisashi kick out the jams live in Japan and France, back in fall 1997. Selected and mixed by Yoshida, there are sixteen cuts, including "Hyderomasgroningem", "Plexus", "Snare", "Pontemcorary Music #1", and their much-loved progressive rock medley. Limited to 500 (there were only 100 of the cassettes).
This is the stuff we like! Slow moving vinyl crackle and click, achingly pretty. Droning melodiously, hum and repetition beautifully employed, this conjures a mood of reverie and melancholic bliss. Saule is the name used by Belgian composer Xavier Garcia Bardon for his turntable-based works, and this Sub Rosa cd is his debut release. The first thing we were reminded of when we heard this was Philip Jeck. You know how much we love that British looper of scratchy old vinyl, right? Like Jeck, Saule also finds music in the grooves of old records -- that is, in the sound of the needle on wax, as well as what's more commonly considered a record's musical 'content'. And like Jeck he's a careful listener, rather than a hyperkinetic whipwhipwhap dj. Futhermore, both Saule and Jeck use multiple turntables to elaborate an aesthetic enamored of dusty, glacially-paced drones. But although they have much in common, Saule isn't merely just another Jeck. No, Saule is more like Jeck crossed with a post-rock band! But there's no 'band', just Saule's prepared records, three turntables, a microphone, mixer, and "headphones (for feedback)". With Philip Jeck, the mesmerizing, crackling loops can be their own reward, but Saule will provide some rock-like resolution as well, as with the sudden burst of distortion that heralds the addition of a sampled, broken drum break toward the end of track one, "Hola". Especially when you get to "Lido", the third of three long tracks that comprise Sentimental Journey, you'll hear this post-rock thing we're talking about. Codeine mixed with Radian comes to mind. "Lido" was apparently originally conceived as a soundtrack to an independent film, stills from which enliven the cd packaging. And it, like the other tracks here, has a cinematic quality, though it might well overwhelm any visuals. This disc is a stellar exampleof 'turntablism' in a non-hip-hop context -- as we said, it's more like instrumental post rock instead, although we're sure DJ Shadow fans will like this! We suggest playing it loud, which will be especially effective when track three swells into something grand that Godspeed could never match.
First release in 7 YEARS from mighty UK heavy/drone/psych gods Skullfower. Matthew Bower (Sunroof!, Total ) resurrects his slumbering free-noise behemoth with this gorgeous blast of hypnotic, pummeling, droning crush, equal parts shimmering skree, damaged motorik rhythms, murky and druggy psych-rock riffs and swirling fuzzed-out guitars.
The album's core is the epic, expansive and never ending, four part suite "Celestial Highway", a sludgy sabbathy seventies rock riff, repeated adinfinitum, a dangerously unstable entropic jam wherein the riff slowly drifts apart, sinking into a churning tarpit of abstract whir and hum, gradually mutating into a drifting, throbbing pulse, as warbly synths, chirping birds, and thick washes of dreamy sonic turbulence overtake and subdue any traces of the original riff. Mesmeric and hypnotic and totally otherworldly. Like UK mantric rockers Loop, on repeat play, while your boombox runs out of batteries, or a sweeter, prettier version of Dutch minimal metal gods Gore, or imagine Steve Reich or Terry Riley composing for Black Sabbath. The remaining tracks retain their Krautrockish propulsion but drift closer to Sunroof! territory, loosening the psychedelic electronic riffscapes from their moorings, letting them float lazily through a gauzy soundscape of buzzing melodies, luminous shards of shimmering feedback and rumbling waves of drowsy, druggy drone. Like Neu! or Kraftwerk, doped up and drifting off, run through a bank of cheap effects, and broadcast out of an underwater leslie speaker, the lo-fi rhythms suffocating under a thick blanket of gossamer guitars and sonic detritus. Hypnotic and savage, dreamy and otherworldly, quixotic and godlike! Featuring sonic contributions from Vibracathedral Orchestra's Neil Campbell and produced by Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound, Ora. Monos, etc.).
Andee sez: This is the best Spacemen Three record ever, hands down. Period. As much as I love the garage-y fuzz rock of their early records, Playing With Fire is where their hypno-drone tendencies were finally fully realised. It's like classic Spacemen Three, but filtered through that Galaxie 500 summer-sun-space-reverb. All shimmer and throb, oscillating into the ether. This record is what sunspots on a lazy, humid afternoon would sound like. Or you know when you look out over the highway on a hot day, and the air is all warbly and distorted. This record is what I imagine that wavy, shimmering air sounds like. Gently plucked melodies over langorous, lazy riffs, underpinned by processed, delayed guitars that are bundled into reverberent pulses that spread out lazily, like sonic ripples. So absolutely, perfectly gorgeous. Occasionally, the tranquility is briefly upended by squalls of wooly fuzz and propulsive garagerock riffs, but things quickly smooth out and the musical narcotics begin to flow again and you drift right back off..... Comes with an extra disc of demos and alternate mixes!
Well, there may not be a new Acid Mothers Temple record this list, but for those of you who find such news disappointing will surely be satisfied with this lp in the interim. SMS features 2/3 of the holy trinity of Japanese psych rock, Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple, and Nahnjo Asahito of Mainliner, High Rise, Musica Transonic, etc., missing only the freak out guitar and whale-call wails of Keiji Haino. Oh, so close to being the record that would send all you Japan-psych-freaks over the edge. Haino, Kawabata, Nanjo...I don't think the world could handle it. Instead, the band is rounded out by Shimura Koji from White Heaven, High Rise, and Mainliner, Sasaki Hisashi of the Ruins, and Chicago psychrock freak Plastic Crimewave. And what you get is just what you might expect, massive, rambling, spaced out psychedelic jams, three guitars wide, roiling and seething, rocking and frenzied, occasionally drifting into wild and dreamy cosmic blissouts.
Now (again) available on vinyl! Here's what we wrote about the cd reissue that came out three years ago: an exceedingly rare 1978 Sun Ra LP, apparently a fave with acid jazz djs, if they could find a copy of the original lp on the Philly Jazz "micro-label". Five spacey, gorgeous tracks. From the slow, achingly beautiful opening title track, to the space-funk of "Where The Pathways Meet", to the cosmic coctail jazz of "Twin Stars of Thence", and to the final, magnificent, eerie "There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)", with the whispered and chanted voices of Ra, June Tyson, and others imparting unintelligible ancient wisdom, this is a fantastic disc. Don't fear the presence of one "Disco Kid" on guitar, this is far from being cheesy or dated disco dancefloor material. A true "kosmigroove" find, one that of course Sun Ra fans, but also '70s Miles Davis fans, will absolutely love.
Another missive from this massive (seven or eight or who knows how many members) free rock/folk ensemble from Massachussetts who are currently gracing the cover of the Wire, representing "weird America". Which as far as we can tell is this current crop of hippy folk revivalists channelling the spirit of sixties' ESP and seventies British folk through their appropriately eclectic record collections. By now you know, we here at AQ can't get enough of the Sunburned Hand, and neither can anyone else, judging from the scarcity of their cdrs. But at least the vinyl keeps coming. Too bad for those of you who remain turntableless. That'll teach ya! Trickle Down Theory... is about the free-est bit of scattered improv we've heard from SHOTM, and it's also maybe the most thrown together sounding. A sort of murky, stumbling, shambling rhythm, with chantlike vocals and the occasional casio sputter. Tinkling chimes, rattling clatter and squealing sax all make brief appearances, and towards the middle of side two, things pick up considerably with a warbly, seasick Eastern raga that devolves into an outer space, free jazz battle of the bands, noisy and damaged and almost spiritual. With FLUTES! While not their best effort, keep in mind that the worst SHOTM is better than the best lots of bands have to offer. This is still some prime, otherworldly, drugged out, folky and fucked up, promordial ooze.
Windy's other new favorite record this week is this EP from TV On The Radio, who online searches reveal as being the new band from onetime AQ-regular Kip -- one of the nicest guys around, plus you could see his afro coming from way down Valencia, like at 19th. Seems he's been keeping himself plenty busy since departing SF for the east coast (you can also find him starring in Jon Moritsugu's latest film Scum Rock). Simply put, TV on the Radio sound like an indie version of Peter Gabriel. At least that's what Andee thinks (as do all the intrigued folks who're coming up to the counter to ask which Gabriel album we're playing). However, not being super familiar with Gabriel beyond that Sledgehammer song, I'd have to liken the Brooklyn band's sound to the early pop albums from Brian Eno -- think Taking Tiger Mountain and you have some idea of the brilliance of this dark pop, intelligent arrangements, impassioned treated vocals, insidious clackety percussion. It's a fantastic combination that I'm having trouble describing. A very satisfying listen from a band that sounds so directed and mature. Guests on the record include Brian Chase of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Four songs, plus a hidden fifth track -- an a capella rendering of the Pixies' "Mr. Grieves" complete with oohs, aahs and sunshine harmonies.
Remember The User from their Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers releases? They're the Quebec-based duo that made some amazing, techno-ish music simply by programming the output of a bunch of old printers! Now they've got another idea...
Sonically, this is all about very nice, drifting, almost melodic, but very physical drones. Rising and falling, hovering, hypnotic. Conceptually, this is the sound of The User "playing" an abandoned grain elevator building in Montreal. That large resonating space (capacity five million bushels of wheat!) is an empty environment for them to set up electroacoustic feedback loops, resulting in these rumbling drones. There's some knocking about, like echoes of the activity that once took place in the building -- should we call this music "agricultural" as opposed to "industrial"? Mostly, though, these vibrating frequencies are absent any obvious source. This could be computer music, or one of Toshiya Tsunoda's field recordings of the air in a bottle... Very different from the dot matrix symphony concept for sure, and very beautiful.
This silo performance is apparently only the first in a series to be recorded at the site, under the auspices of an organization called Silophone. More info to be had at www.silophone.net...
This just may be the best compilation ever. How's this for a concept? A bunch of electronic/noise bands make songs out of death metal drums. Just the drums. Brilliant. Maybe. Has the potential to be pretty amazing. So how does it actually fare? Pretty well surprisingly. Most of the bands don't fuck with the beats too much, just sort of do their thing around whatever their chosen blast beat happens to be. So what could have been a stupid mess becomes the weirdest, noisiest, most confounding death metal record ever. Light on the guitars, but heavy on the buzz and glitch and whir and skree and whatever chopped up, processed graaeeerrgggghhhh they could get out of their laptops. Think a death metal V/VM, or Dave Lombardo drumming for Wolf Eyes! AQ pal Lesser is on here, as is Bombadier and Panicsville, but the rest of the participants are new to us. It hardly matters though. The tracks all sort of fit together into a single, epic, demented "death metal" masterpiece.
