Ryan Adams has been a very busy, prolific man, and the fruits of his labor are two new full lengths (well, technically one is a lengthy 8-song ep). With both, he stretches out and takes another sizable step away from his Whiskeytown / alt-country rock past. Through the first few songs of each release, it seems they're quite drastically different from one another, however as they progress the two draw closer and closer. Released concurrently with the the slower paced and more dramatic Love Is Hell Pt. 1, this one, titled and themed Llor N KcoR (yep, that's Rock N Roll backwards), is filled to the gills with anthemic rock - each song packed with high wailing lead guitars, chunky rhythm guitars, a solid driving beat, and plentiful cymbal crashes. However, it's not completely the Americana type (akin to Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and Paul Westerberg) for which he's well-known. Many of the songs have a decidedly British rock flair. Take the fifth song "So Alive" for instance, a very U2-ish flag waver. Gets the blood pumpin'. Just as he does on Love Is Hell, Adams throws a single song into the middle of Rock N Roll that's a bit incongruous with the rest. Oddly enough it's actually the title track. Set amid the raucousness of the other thirteen songs, it's a subdued, intimate voice and piano number laced with a quiet texture of sampled dialogue. Nice. A final note: we have to say that, surely much to his chagrin, vocally Mr. Ryan Adams seems to be drawing nearer and nearer to the hoarse rasp of Bryan Adams (no relation, right?).
Ryan Adams has been a very busy, prolific man, and the fruits of his labor are two new full lengths (well, technically this is actually a lengthy 8-song ep). With both, he stretches out and takes another sizable step away from his Whiskeytown / alt-country rock past. Through the first few songs of each release, it seems they're quite drastically different from one another, however as they progress the two draw closer and closer. Released concurrently with the one titled and themed Llor N KcoR (yep, that's Rock N Roll backwards), the slower paced and more dramatic Love Is Hell Pt. 1 (part two coming next year, apparently) seems to be the album on which Ryan Adams decided to don Rufus Wainwright's somberly introspective brocade coat for a few numbers. The results are mixed, but of the two releases this one is definitely the stronger. Furthermore, it's leaps and bounds better than most of his recent efforts (which consistently fell short of the high caliber set by his debut Heartbreaker) revealing a much more mature, composed, heartbaring Adams. Amid the smoky, lush instrumentation he howls, croons and emotes much like Wainwright and on occasion like Thom Yorke ("Afraid Not Scared") or Bruce Springsteen ("This House Is Not For Sale") too. As the centerpiece of this release, he delivers a stirring cover of "Wonderwall". He successfully makes the song his own (and sets it apart from the other seven songs) by stripping away Oasis' melodramatic grandeur to bring the focus solely on his voice and picked guitar.
Seminal Krautrockers Amon Duul II are captured here on film doing what the title says, playing their debut (and perhaps 2nd best, next to their masterpiece Yeti) album. It's about a half-hour long, a psychedelic transmission from a far off time and place: Munich, Germany 1968. Fans probably need this, but we should give you a little more info. First off, it's more of an art film (Wim Wenders was one of the cinematographers!) than a live-in-concert document. In fact, while the soundtrack is very definitely a live performance of the mind-blowing hippie hoedown that Phallus Dei is, it's not exactly synched to what you see the band doing on the screen -- they're two different performances of the same material. Apparently the reason the audio and visual don't match up is because the band refused to stop playing, or do anything over, even when some of the cameras malfunctioned. So edits were necessary. But in a way it doesn't matter -- the weird disconnect just makes this all the more psychedelic, as you hear the violin before the musican starts playing it, or the bongos continue even when the drummer stops to get his hair out of his face. Not that this needs much help to be super psychedelic -- the colorful light show alone will trip you out, superimposed as it is over the long haired hippies in the band grooving out. Messing with your mind still further, the first part of the film (after a lovely opening sequence of the rising sun, later mirrored by shots of the sunset) is a fairly close up shot of just the band's two singers, and remains fixed on them even during a largely instrumental portion of the song. Renate Knaup looks bored (but sexy), while Shrat does his best to freak out on a tamborine which you can't hear. Then there's the portions of the film that show scenes of an artifically blue-toned German countryside as the camera drives past, that's fairly mesmerizing. The overall effect is enhanced by the scratches and spots on the time-worn film -- freeze-frame the opening sunrise sequence with your DVD pause button and you'll find many wonderful abstract compositions. Anyway, it's a historical musical document as well as an intriguing art flick -- when it screened at the 1969 Edinburgh Film Festival, American director Samuel Fuller (Shock Corridor) was quoted as saying "It's rough, it's vicious, it's drama". And here's what that festival's program guide had to say, to put you in the mood: "This film will be shown without titles or credits. It is in colour and you will see the German rock group Amon Duul II -- which, apart from Amon Duul I, is the only true progressive and outstanding group from Germany -- on stage with their celebrated light show...Their sound is very heavy, weird, and wild. Imagine a cross between Hapshash, Spooky Tooth, Dr. John and Jethro Tull."
As a sort of bonus, this dvd also features a slide-show style discography featuring album artwork and snippets of songs from each of their umpteen releases. There's nothing else in the way of special features except for the surround sound in place of original mono option.
As part of their Splinter Series, Fat Cat Records have reissued these two enigmatic albums together as a double album credited to the group known as Animal Collective (aka the artists Avey Tare and Panda Bear, Geologist, and Deaken). Fragments of obscured sounds, glimpsing melodies and rhythms peek from around corners and poke out of the cracks while strange voices murmur, chant and howl from the shadows.
If the first disc's title and songs strike you as familiar, well, it might be because we were raving about it late last year. It was originally released on its own in 2000 under the moniker Avey Tare And Panda Bear. Heck, we like it very much under any name. And the wonderfully titled Danse Manatee (who doesn't love the manatee?), was their just as dandy follow-up, a subtly more fleshed out and vocal heavy album that was limited to 1000 handmade, silkscreened editions.
Here's what we had to say about the former when it was still credited to A.T.A.P.B.:
This debut album... is, well, it's really good! It's an intriguing combination of elements -- a plaintive, weak voice chirping sadly over rapidly strummed yet fractured guitar, which is normal enough but then there's these weirdly muffled, like, jungle beats in the background, so faint you barely even notice that they're there. The tension between the styles happening simultaneiously is carefully handled and forms a satisfying whole. Vocals are tremulous and tinny but somehow appealing, too, like the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne making incredibly emotional dissonant, fuzzed-out bathroom electronica. There are also gentler numbers with moody piano and delicate vocal effects. And some raucous squealing feedback guitar (like a womans wail) over Reichian arpeggiated synths. The overall effect is slightly creepy but mostly just wintry, melancholy and sad. Recommended.
Seems we haven't had a super dub collection come our way for a while, so it's nice to have this wee disc pass through our doors. Before Dennis Bovell came to wider recognition through his efforts producing the Slits and the Pop Group, he could have retired and earned himself a veritable lifetime acheivement award for his efforts not only in shaping the sound of UK reggae, but also in putting on the map in a very Jamaican-centric scene. He had a hefty C.V. including: founding member of England's premiere reggae group Matumbi, running his Sufferer HiFi sound system, running a successful record label and his work with Linton Kwesi Johnson for starters. Though always confident that whatever he and his fellow musicians and producers in the UK were doing was just as good as the newest thing out of Kingston, getting his fellow countrymen and expats to reach the same conclusion was not as simple as saying the proof is in the pudding. There's a really great story in Lloyd Bradley's "Bass Culture" (printed in the U.S. with the less exciting "This Is Reggae Music" title) in which Bovell relates how he got people to stop and listen: the good old fashion dub plate. Every good DJ wants to have a kick ass track that their competitors don't, especially if they think it's coming from Jamaica. Knowing this, Bovell began having his group Matumbi cut dub tracks and release them on 7". They even went so far as to buy a "dink" machine to give them that extra bit of authenticity. See, the 7"sthat they'd get pressed in the UK all had the small hole in the middle, where as the Jamaican singles all had the big hole in the middle. The "dink" machine lopped out the hole in the middle so that their singles looked just like those from Kingston. Add a rubber stamped evocative label name, "Rama", to the single and there's no telling the difference. Then they just ran them around town to all the shops and sound systems, selling them direct (which only adds to a sense of authenticity in the world of exclusive dub plates). You have to read Bradley's book yourself to find out how they finally got "caught". Of the 16 dub tracks on this collection several are apparently those self same rare dub plates that fooled the DJ's and public of yore. But rare tracks or no, all of the tracks here (recorded between 1976 and 1983) are excellent, proving Bovell was indeed on par with the best in Kingston. Part of what inspired Bovell to challenge the Jamaican supremacy was his refusal to be content with merely immitating the rhythms already reworked ad nauseum on both sides of the Atlantic. Making the best of both worlds Bovell was un-fettered by the popular trends of Jamaican music while, in a genre almost predicated on creative borrowing, free to take what he liked from a wide pool of sources; be it Sly Dunbar rhythm tweaked with a calypso flavor, or a Congos era Lee Perry intro and bass line. But by throwing in some rock fuzz guitar, suavely lifting a lick from the Beatles here and there Bovell creates some great dubs that were uniquely his own. Highly recommended!
The Textbook Tapes contain a healthy dose of lo-fi, sci-fi ramshackle pop excursions full of youthful exuberance and experimentation. Bouncy sing-song tunes bump curiously into brief urgent spoken word segments, leisure suit organ numbers into dainty toy piano melodies. Vocals are delivered in affected dramatic tones and oddball falsetto. Although this cd is subtitled "A Musical Exploration Of The Novel, The Manikin Textbook, By Colin Jacks", in spirit it actually comes across sounding just as much like an indie tribute to the Krofft Supershow. Fun and quirky.
Okay, we mentioned this already a couple of AQ lists ago, but we've just gotta ask again... what's the deal with so many Canadian indie bands' names? Are they trying to prevent people from checking them out? Take this band for example, they're called The Buttless Chaps! C'mon, that rivals Corn On Macabre or Cream Abdul Babar on the wince-o-meter. Contrary to what almost everyone who has encountered the band's moniker has thought, they are not a joke band! They are in fact a mighty fine hybrid of country and '80s new wave pop... yes, their instrumentation includes a synth *and* a banjo! I know, I know! Even the description makes them sound like a joke band, but give these fellows a listen and you'll surely see things a little differently. They move effortlessly from barnyard boot stompers and moonlight porchswing ballads to ABC-esque synth melodramas - often fusing them together within a single song with nary a smartaleck wink nor a clumsy stumble. They seem quite sincere in their love of both genres. And we haven't even mentioned yet that lead singer Dave has a strong deep voice very well-suited to both musical styles (at times very Martin Fry or Jarvis Cocker). Truly, if they were only a country band or conversely only a retro synth pop band, they'd be a damn good one, and no eyebrows would be raised (uhh, unless they were still called the Buttless Chaps... wink!).
A new solo album from this Belle And Sebastian sweetie pie. What to expect? Well, for the most part it's her breathy soft vocals drifting over candy-coated Burt Bacharach-esque orchestrations - ever so swirling, grand and lovely - but every so often she dips her toe into another limpid blue pool. Such is the case with one of the highlights of the album, the super fun ragtime flapper tune "Cat's Pyjamas". Amorino is sure to please B&S's most sweet-toothed fans as well as anyone seeking pure orchestral pop prettiness. Very very nice!
Emo doesn't get any more epic than this. Start with the name, Coheed And Cambria? What the fuck? And then song titles like "The Velourium Camper Pts. I-III", "Three Evils (Embodied In Love And Shadow)" and "Cuts Marked In The March Of Men". But the music is where things get really weird, and epic. Lengthy and proggy song structures, huge crunchy metal guitars, convoluted and improbable rhythms, and vocals...woah, the vocals. Somewhere between Freddie Mercury, Jeff Buckley, Geddy Lee, the guy from Shudder To Think, and the guy from Cyclefly, with a gorgeously crystalline high tenor, that swoops and soars, not silly like, say, the Darkness, but more graceful and dramatic, and totally gorgeous. The title track is a metalcore masterpiece, but what sets it apart is the clean vocals throughout, the almost-Pinback sounding breakdown in the middle, and the Peter Gabriel like epic reprise, complete with a huge chorus of back up vocals. The record is super varied though, from Get Up Kids style emo romps, to metalcore crunch, to progressive weirdness, to MTV metal, with death metal breakdowns, super sappy pop choruses, complicated and ridiculous instrumental breaks, and a hidden track that manages to be so bizarre and silly and prog with multiple parts, SUPER dramatic vocals, lyrics like "My robot will never die..." and hyper complex instrumental segments, and still sound right at home with rest of the record. Sounds a bit like the bands stab at a grand musical a la the Who's Tommy. This gets played SO much in the store (this hit the spot for Jim's emo sweet tooth) and I (Andee) haven't stopped listening to it at home since I got it. Even saw their video on MTV2 which is really bizarre! But only made me like them more. Thought they'd be skinny little emo boys, but they're sort of bearded, husky, regular guys, and one of them sports a wicked rock-fro that would make Buzz from the Melvins proud!
We love Mr. Show. And we LOVE David Cross. And we loved his double cd on Sub Pop, And now we LOVE this DVD. I threw it on only expecting to watch a little chunk of it, but we ended up watching the whole thing and laughing hysterically the whole time. It's not a concert film, in fact there's very little stand up at all, it's more like a tour video, documenting the travelling, and the fans, and the freaks, and the drunks, and the club owners and Cross's unique response to all of them. Highlights include a segment where he hands the mic to a girl in the crowd mid set so he can go take a piss, and the part where he spends an entire set talking about the asshole club owner, who then tries to kick him out after the show, while Cross draws it out as long as humanly possible, tormenting the guy. So uncomfortable. But so brilliant. The whole thing is like that, so uncomfortable it's funny!
The new Dead C record starts out with a bang, the likes of which we haven't heard from them in a while. A rock song. That's right, a rock song. Albeit a noisy, squealing, writhing squall of a rock song. Big simple drums lead the march, with a crunchy fuzzy riff, swathed in layers of feedback, and vocals, that's right, singing, WAY up in the mix too. Chaotic and propulsive, a bit like the Swell Maps maybe. But even more fucked sounding obviously. Fear not, soon we're back on more familiar footing, with an almost ambient track, spare and ghostly, a droning thrum with strange clicks and hums buried in cave-like reverb. Sounds like tape hiss, but as it might occur in nature. Things get awfully noisy shortly thereafter, with a wild and free blast of stumbling percussion and more feedback than two guys should be able to produce. But then it's time for another surprise, as things get really moody and melodic, with some dreamy, sort-of space-rock (or as close to space rock as the C get) with mumbled vocals, a hypnotic bass line, and ear piercing guitar klang. Like AQ faves Circle broadcast through a shitty car stereo with only one speaker. The final proper track is a twenty minute krautrockish jam, but done as only the Dead C can, more feedback and confusion than groove, more hiss and fuzz than riff, more noise than melody. The record finishes off with a recording of highway traffic that sounds like it could actually *be* the band's music, which is why they're so amazing, right?
A not so new EP from AQ faves the Decemberists, although it is new to most of us, since it was originally released in a super limited edition. This curiously titled record (there are actually 6 songs) is another winner from this Dickensian/Gorey-ish troupe of wandering minstrels. A sweetly sour mix of acoustic guitars, brushed drums, lap steel and accordian backing up curious tales of love, loss, drinking, sorrow, loneliness, circuses, family and stolen bicycles. So good.
Final blast from the past in this F/i reissue blitz of late and it's a doozy. The first half is a reissue of the Blue Star lp, three lengthy tracks of spaced out fucked up Hawkwind meets Gore meets Acid Mothers Temple outer-space-psych. Sludgy riffs are pounded into oblivion, splintering into shards of psychedelic swoosh and druggy shimmer. Endlessly and gorgeously hypnotic. The second half is the F/i half of their split with Vocokesh, and is way more electronic. Same vibe and feel as the first half, but with the riffs becoming weird modulated tones, and the propulsive drumming turning into mechanical throbs and pulses. Imagine a krautrock Wolf Eyes or Factrix covering Sabbath. This is some awesome shit. As recommended as the rest of the recent F/i reissues!
This is the first we've heard from Alastair Galbraith since a couple years ago, when he teamed up with Matt De Gennaro for an album of Ur-drone we absoultely loved, gorgeous bowed piano and violin strings, shimmering and shuddering. Really dreamy and mesmerising. And it seems like Galbraith is continuing even further in his trajectory away from song based forms and toward more free and abstract sound. And we couldn't be happier. While we love everything this man does, our hearts belong to the drone. For these two lengthy tracks, Galbraith teams up with fellow Kiwi legend Constantine Karlis, drummer for High Dependency Unit, to craft delicate and spidery abstract soundscapes of buzzing, scraping and keening violin, treated guitar loops, and scattered free drumming. The result is absolutely divine. Spare and spacious, the violin occsionally hints at eastern sounding ragas, playing almost-melodies, before slipping back into wavery drones, squeaky and swaying, while the huge, cavernous sounding drums are splattered throughout, sometimes a basic primal rhythm, sometimes barely-there flourishes, and sometimes a full on squall of percussive brutality. At it's free-est it's a bit like Angus Maclise or Tony Conrad backing up a free jazz drummer, when proceedings get a little more structured, you can almost imagine Damon Che of Don Caballero or...maybe even...ME (I tried to think of another drummer but Allan made me put me, Andee Connors), drumming for Lamonte Young or John Cale. So highly recommended. A new favorite late night record for the drone-prone among us.
The Burden of Hope is the debut full-length by Portland, Oregon's Grails (featuring a member of Jackie-O Motherfucker we're told), revealing them to be a confident, powerful, melodic, entirely instrumental post rock outfit. Their dynamic (quiet-loud, soft-heavy) music is led by violin, which makes this sound a lot like the Dirty Three meets Mogwai or something, with touches of Eastern European folk musics. And when, halfway through the album, they break into a spirited cover of "Space Prophet Dogon" from the Sun City Girls' masterwork Torch Of The Mystics, it makes perfect sense -- they hew pretty close to the original, yet it sounds like one of theirs. This collection of storm-tossed instrumentals is a moody listen, from the quietude of piano and shimmering cymbals to massive rages of guitar/violin/drums. Atmospheric, emotional, sad and dangerous. And totally beautiful.
Seems like it would be tough to pick 20 or so songs for a greatest hits album when the band in question has several thousand to choose from. But Pollard and company have done just that. So here we have an introduction to perhaps the world's most prolific pop band. And as with all greatest hits records, some of the song choices are questionable, and there are some definite glaring omissions, but for the most part, someone new to Guided By Voices would be hard pressed to not fall in love. Jangly and ramshackle, perfectly skewed lo-fi indie pop: like the British Invasion filtered through early eighties college rock, or the Beatles if they recorded for Homestead, or the Kinks if they had grown up in the midwest. A bit heavy on the newer stuff for my liking, which is not because those songs are necessarily bad because they're not. Let's face it, for having written thousands of songs GBV hits the mark more than most bands with a fraction of their recorded output. It's mostly disappointing because there's SO MUCH great older stuff that obviously got bumped for songs probably still fresh/relevant to the band. That said, this is a pretty perfect collection. But if you're already a fan, you might as well buy the Hardcore UFO's boxset since this disc is included and you most likely have all these songs anyway.
You can never have too many Guided By Voices songs. So in that spirit, here's three more. The title track from the most recent album, which just happens to be one of Pollard's best, one unreleased original, all dreamy and strummy and sleepy, and a Cheap Trick cover! Good stuff.
Whoa! We always knew the High Llamas could craft soothing, dulcet sounds in fine fashion, but on Beet, Maize & Corn their pleasantly mellow stylings have mutated into Lawrence Welk-esque choral arrangements. Really! You can almost see the gents and ladies swaying in time to these candlelit orchestral numbers. The glorious horns and strings seem genuinely from another era. Quite remarkable and very very different from all that has come before in the High Llamas body of work. Not sure yet if it's our cup of Earl Grey... perhaps you might wish to take a sip for yourself.
Sort of in contrast to the live cd by DJ Z-Trip reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, comes this live recording by *another* AQ fave turntablist, British phonograph-drone experimentalist Philip Jeck. Completely different, of course. There's no rock/rap mash ups to be found here, that's for sure. Mash ups between crackly vinyl grooves and slowed-down ballroom waltzes, perhaps. If you haven't heard him before, we'd recommend his last studio disc Stoke or either of his Vinyl Coda releases to start with (or the upcoming reissue of his classic Surf album). Host is perhaps closest in sound to Stoke, getting into some of the more aggro yet still hypnotic sounds Jeck makes. And 'cause it's live, you might recognize some of the records Jeck is spinning from his other albums. Highlight for us is the final 24 minute cut "Skew" in which Jeck builds up some truly psychedelic levels of delay. Head-throbbing.
In addition to three tracks/44 minutes of live Jeck audio, this disc is enhanced with a cd-rom video portion, a quite cool 20 minute film of Jeck performing. It's quite well done, often with two views of Jeck and his turntables combined on the screen at one time, with fluid camera motion/zoom giving some visual appeal to the relatively static DJ performance. Nicely done.
Now here's the weird thing about this. Supposedly, according to Touch (Jeck's usual label, who are releasing a brand new Jeck album called 7 later this month), this is, or is going to be, withdrawn. Touch claims Jeck did not authorize this release, yet it still seems to be available and we can't figure out what the problem would be. Sub Rosa seems perfectly reputable as labels go. But anyway, if the rumor is reality, then this might get scarce pretty quick...
Back in 2001 we reviewed two simultaneously-released albums by a really strange death metal / prog rock / new age collison of a band called Maudlin Of The Well. Perhaps you remember them, they were pretty great and weird, and hard to figure out. Now, two years later, Maudlin Of The Well are back in the guise of Kayo Dot. Not sure why they changed their name, it must have had something to do with signing to John Zorn's Tzadik label. Yes, they're on Tzadik -- their avant-garde dreams come true! John Zorn is their buddy now! But it's clearly the same band. And if anything, better and more bizarre than before. Imagine an epic combination of Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Radiohead's OK Computer, Neurosis or Tarantula Hawk, and Faith No More circa Angel Dust (Kayo Dot's singer definitely has some sort of crush on Mike Patton)!! The heavy parts are HEAVY, the pop stuff nicely poppy, the dreamy stuff way dreamy and delicate. Music to float along with, or dive down deep into. The dense heavy sections approach Boris or Pelican levels, with screams buried beneath the din...then it'll break down into a piano interlude or Frippish guitar solo. The most avant black metal acts also would appear to be part of Kayo Dot's listening diet. An unusual Tzadik release to be sure -- even with the chamber strings and jazz horns and prog moves and psychedelically noisy parts, this has a core of both pop and metal that ironically makes this one of the *most* experimental releases on the label! Recommended.
Extreme doom here folks. I mean, these four tracks (two of 'em approaching twenty minutes each) are slower and lower and uglier even than the tunes on Khanate's immense self-titled debut from two years ago! We're not saying this tops the debut (that would be difficult) but Things Viral takes the Khanate sound into a seldom-explored realm where signs of life and hope are few and far between. This is some sparse, slow, intensely creepy metal for sure. The plod of a drum, some glitchy amplifier feedback, a crushing guitar riff, bass drone...all the perfect accompaniment to the anguished rasp of vocalist Alan Dubin, who turns this record into his own personal let-it-all-out psycho-drama session. As soon as the first track "Commuted" starts, you can imagine the band, broken, bleeding, crawling across the floor of the studio, scrabbling at their instruments, Dubin clutching the microphone like it's his last link to a world of human emotion. It's harrowing, simply put. The ravings of a disturbed man put to music by Earth would be a decent description. Downer metal was never so down, and the clarity with which this was recorded belies the term sludge. Only for the brave -- leave the lights on when you listen to this, and make sure you have the suicide hotline number handy. Includes the track "Dead" previously released on vinyl only as the b-side to the "No Joy [remix]" 12".
Kid 606's press agent acclaims that "the Kid has consistently sabotaged categorization of his work by remaining true to its core; his violence is against sound, against the sounds of comfort; against the sounds listeners expect." This record is pretty good, but that's a bit much. What this album does offer is a really cool drum & bass party album, with lots of sweaty Amen breakbeats, dum dum Rotterdam rhythms, ragga toasting, and a refined understanding of where all of the samples should go within a pretty great jungle record. The Kid's choices of samples includes police sirens, sci-fi effects, and rave blasts, following the standards of jungle set by Metalheadz and Ed Rush almost a decade ago. Maybe it's an homage? Either way, this is just the thing for your boomin' system.
Unlike the space-age Moog pop confections of Gershon "Perrey &" Kingsley's wonderful Music To Moog By (reviewed last list), this simultaneously reissued album was seemingly a more serious proposition, recorded at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in 1970. At the time, a live, four-Moog performance was considered rather astonishing. But with Robert Moog building the instruments and Kingsley training the musicians, they pulled it off.
The weird-sound-effects side of the synthesizer is definitely explored, providing an appropriate backing for some rather bizarre vocal parts including readings of poetry written by kids on subjects such as "The Brain" and "War". The overall effect is kinda new-music psychedelic, and there's a drummer and bassist present so they can fully rock out on occasion. Furthermore, Kingley's Quartet doesn't neglect to switch-on some (contemporary) classics: you get covers of "Sounds of Silence" and "Eleanor Rigby", the latter getting a super groovy treatment. Pretty cool, and quite kitschy despite the classical concert-hall, high-culture setting.
Laika aren't a band of sudden changes or startling shifts. They've effectively cast their spell, soothing and grooving their way through three smokily trippy albums, and you might recall their splendid ten year retrospective compilation from earlier this year callled Lost In Space. Well, we're pleased to report that with the lengthily titled Wherever I Am I Am What Is Missing, they're showing no signs of stopping. That said, this full length contains perhaps their most low key and stripped down tracks ever. Their usual lush assemblage of samples and diverse array of instruments have been stripped down to the Laika bare bones basics Fender Rhodes keys, undulating bass lines, kinetic rhythms and Margaret Fiedler's spoken-sung vocals. Still very hypnotic and moody, it makes for a perfect late night wind down album.
Last Visible Dog brings us the first US release for this Tokyo-based trio, a self-described 'romantic psychedelic band'. Recorded live at Tokyo's Penguin House back in January of this year, this disc starts off with a raucous tangle-jangle of bright garagey guitars ("Tottemo"), followed by a melancholic pop dirge that then erupts into sky-scraping psych guitar overload ("Subeteha"). The rest of the set follows a similar pattern, juxtaposing the quiet and folky with the loud and shrill. You'll get a song that features mopey Japanese vocals over jazzily listless instrumental backing, that'll be followed by piece built around some severe, noisy guitar rockin' and crashing drums. Often one thing builds into the other, which is quite satisfying. Definitely a 'Tokyo Flashback' style band, for fans of Shizuka, Nagisa Ni Te, White Heaven, Kousokuya, all that sort of thing!
Like their fellow Bristolians Crescent, Movietone have polished up their sound for their most recent recordings, dropping all of the rough edges, murky atmospheres, and evocative juxtapositions which dominated their earlier recordings. Thus, The Sand And The Stars is a far cry from the band's origins, as bassist Rachel Brook grounded the radioluminescent guitar wash of Flying Saucer Attack during their earliest recordings. While Movietone never really ever sounded like Flying Saucer Attack, their underappreciated debut album and their masterpiece Day and Night enveloped themselves in overcast production and drizzled plenty of lethargy and melancholia over their post-Galaxie 500 strum, that at least reflected similiar ideas as Flying Saucer Attack. Instead of the huge guitar feedback of FSA, Brook and vocalist / guitarist Kate Wright were searching for a preciousness in their music. Since the aforementioned Day and Night album, Movietone has moved away from the empathic nature of the soundscapes and towards the storytelling potential of songsmithery. The Sand And The Stars was intended to be a "jazz record being played across the bay," and well, that's sort of accurate. The languid, marine themes of that image are definitely present in these somber orchestrations, that could have been found on a Nico album tumbling in slow motion with any given Mediterranean jazz combo. Yet, the implications of distance are misleading, as this album is immaculately produced and gives the impression of a sort-of jazz album being played quietly and intimately in your living room. Pleasant to say the least.
Of course the first thing that will unfortunately happen for Neung Phak (a.k.a. Mono Pause) are the inevitable comparisons to Dengue Fever. And to come to their defence (and we're devout fans of Dengue Fever as well) Neung Phak have not only began working on these tracks prior to Dengue Fever's inception, but the music of the two bands are apples and oranges. Neung Phak (literal Thai translation of Mono Pause) is a new line-up and musical direction for the East Bay experimental music veterans Mono Pause. Featuring Diana Hayes and Joi Po Dee on vocals (Thai and Lao respectively) and some cameo appearances from Sun City Girl Alan Bishop, Neung Phak have done their homework when it comes to pop music of SE Asia. Less a fusion of styles, as seems to be the general trend with occidental ethno-pop bands, than a thoroughly researched compilation of SE Asian pop music genres, with each individual track being an excellently re-created execution of a particular idiom; be it Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Cambodian or Khmer. The album kicks off with "Hired By The King" an excellent toe-tapping mo lam like track (a Neung Phak original) with superb kaen (the ubiquitous mouth organ of the region) playing by Erik Gergis and accompanied by electric bass, electric guitar (picked like a mandolin or oud would be) and percussion (a track later on in the disc "Fired By The King" is similar, though featuring an out of tune bass line that's apparently popular in many of the originals). In stark contrast what follows is a cover of a Thai country pop tune from 1998, an adorably cute up-beat number featuring percussive nasal vocals ("Tui, Tui, Tui") by Diana Hayes. Still keeping the pace going, the group continues with a couple Cambodian Rocks-esque numbers that are probably as close to Dengue Fever as you'll hear Neung Phak get; the first track being a Khmer hit from the 80's and the second a Cambodian ballad featuring Alan Bishop on she-male vocals. In addition to these songs, the group has actually recreated portions of radio dramas from Vietnam and Laotian theatrical mo lam, the latter is an absolute noise freak out and not over-embellished at all according to sources. Highly recommended!
"The record is fucking amazing," or so says Nurse With Wound protagonist Steven Stapleton. So fucking amazing in fact that he's issued "Soliloquy For Lilith" in a handful of different editions. Originally released as a triple vinyl set in 1988 (though references have been made to a mysterious additional 12" released in 1989), "Soliloquy For Lilith" got the CD reissue back in 1993, standing as one of the pinnacles within the Nurse With Wound pantheon of surreal records. Now 10 years after the first CD pressing (which was a double CD), Stapleton has issued this masterpiece as a triple disc to mirror of the triple vinyl edition, and he's produced two extra tracks of contemporary material that perfectly complement the original tracks.
The iconography of Lilith is a rich and often divergent set of references, beginning with an ancient story (possibly of ancient Babylonian origin, but merged into Jewish mysticism) of Lilith being the first woman (predating Eve's birth from Adam's rib) who chose not to live in the Garden of Eden. While contemporary feminists have taken Lilith as a role model of independence from masculine authorship (i.e. Lilith Fair), Lilith has often been associated with supernatural tendencies with Qabalist scholars qualifying her as a demoness instead of human, manifesting herself as the 'hidden' second moon that circles the Earth. For his "Soliloquy For Lilith," Stapleton opts for the archaic readings of Lilith, or perhaps a far more personal one as Lilith is the name of his daughter. This is Nurse With Wound's mellowest album as a brooding contemplation of Lilith as an archetypal source for unknown magicks. Here, extended mantras flutter through an ambience created by the closed loop of various effects pedals and flangers, cycling through the built-in harmonics from those electronic elements as tidal rhythms and hums. The resulting album rivals any of the ambient records of Brian Eno and Klaus Schultz, adding a decidedly menacing feel to the ambient blueprint.
Yes, we certainly agree that this record is fucking amazing.
Another project from the folks who brought us the quirky Drizzoletto Live At KXLU disc a short time ago. Octomutt are Ted Savarese and Ashley Adams and they weave meandering guitars and slinking loops with an easygoing anchor of standup bass. There's a definite down home, earthy feel to Octomutt's music - seeming very casual and off the cuff - however an occasional detour into more trippy, eccentric territory is certainly not out of the question. They're joined on the final track "Monkey And The Dolphin" by Drizzoletto co-hort and man about town Ralph Carney (tenor saxophone, flute and bongos).
The fourth cd single installment in Papa M's audio tour diary series means three more fine songs from Mr. David Pajo. As he notes on the back cover, the songs in this series were "written at different times in various cities and recorded wherever". Carrying on the Pajo tradition of earthy excellence, these songs ramp up from spartan and quietly introspective to all-out guitar jam. One second shy of fourteen minutes long.
Punk icon Iggy's back for another round. This time, in addition to his own band the Trolls, and celebrity guests including Peaches, Sum41 and Green Day, he's got his old friends The Stooges (!!!) on board for four songs. As you probably have heard, Iggy and the Stooges (with road dog Mike Watt filling the shoes of Dave Alexander, the bass player who passed away way back in 1975) have done a few, wildly successful reunion shows in recent months. I, Allan, just came back from the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in LA this past weekend, where Iggy and the Stooges headlined the second night (that's basically why I went)...and I can tell you that it was 'real cool time' getting to see 'em, even if they didn't utterly blow my mind or anything. Iggy's like 56, twenty-two years older than me, but I sure couldn't jump around for more than three minutes like he did for the duration of the entire show! And maybe I've led a sheltered existence, but I've never seen a performer jump *onto* a crowd surfer and surf *them* before. They did songs from the first two Stooges albums only, EXCEPT for two of the four new ones found here on Skull Ring. And sad to say, these songs aren't that great, largely 'cause of the inane lyrics. Back in 1970 the Stooges never woulda done a song called "Dead Rock Star" would they? Anyway, I must admit I actually prefer Iggy's collaboration with Peaches on here over the Stooges tracks, maybe 'cause there's less room for disappointment. Still, worth checking out if you love Iggy.
The Rachel's have always been in a tough position. Indie kids eat up their take on chamber music, but lots of other music folks think, 'well why not listen to REAL chamber music?'. We were always of the mind that it was great that a bunch of indie rockers were exploring and trying something new (well, new to them) and maybe turning some kids on to classical music in the process. And their records were always quite pretty and pleasant. And then they surprised everyone by pairing up with electronic duo Matmos for their last release. But on Systems / Layers, Rachel's have finally bridged the gap between their traditional chamber music side and their experimental side, and the results are fantastic. Still present are the lovely mournful strings and Rachel Grimes delicate piano, but the arrangements are strange and more otherwordly, with plenty of found sounds and field recordings. Alternately dreamy and creepy, familiar and totally alien. Reminds us a bit of a less bombastic Godspeed or listening to classical music on your Walkman with only one earphone on as you explore some new city. We always liked Rachel's but this is the first record of theirs that really made us super excited. Check it out.
Yay. Here's this combo's two out of print (but wildly popular when they were available) eps collected onto one handy disc. Now folks who missed out on Smokey & Miho before have another chance to get acquainted. Miho Hatori, former chanteuse for perky, groovy indie popsters Cibo Matto, here makes dreamy, Astrud Gilberto-style, very light and floaty bossa nova with fellow Brazillian music fetishist, guitarist Smokey Hormel, and friends including John Birdsong (trumpet) and Joey Waronker (drums). Their second, five song ep (the first half of this disc) focused on the works of Baden Powell, respectfully covering five of his classic songs. Performed with an increased ease and confidence by all involved, these are finely executed, faithful renditions of this Brazillian music master's works. So lovely. The second half of this disc consists of the five tracks from their debut self-titled ep, and is equally mellow and nice. Soft'n'easy, jazzy cocktail hour numbers that get a bit more abstract closer to the close of the cd. All but one are Smokey & Miho originals, sung in English and Japanese (the cover being an Angolan tune from 1965 written by Ngola Ritmos).
The Strokes, love 'em or hate 'em, that seems to be the choice. They've created some divisions here at Aquarius, that's for sure. The Strokes likers here will tell you that hey, Room On Fire is a lot like The Strokes mega debut album Is This It, that is, great. Or at least, a decent pop rock record with a totally acceptable retro flair and some killer singles. But others here disagree, so we'll let them have their say:
If you're seeking a challenging listen, you won't be finding it in the new Strokes album... but then again, who really thought they would anyways?! Fans are gonna scoop this up regardless of what is said about it, but whether or not the music on this album will win them many new fans is open to question. Very basic chord progressions are played out in very simple strumming patterns by the two guitarists while Julian Casablanca sings along in his shrug'n'slouch of a voice. The first single "12:51" feature an example of the most inane singing style... the I-am-going-to-sing-exactly-the-same-melody-as-the-guitar-and-keyboards-over-and-over-and-over kind. They've proven themselves to be a band who often sound bored, but aren't necessarily boring, however Room On Fire still comes off seeming uninspired and lackluster.
Attention all Mark Kozelek and Red House Painters fans gather 'round! Here's something new for you from the gent himself! Not surprisingly his new band sounds very much in the same vein as his assorted past work. Heck, his stellar bandmates include Red House Painters' Anthony Koutsos, American Music Club's Tim Mooney and Geoff Stanfield (ex-Black Lab). Each song is steeped in Kozelek's usual yearning melancholia and lyrical eloquence, all warmed by ample reverb. The highlight is the expansive, haunting 14 minute long "Duk Koo Kim", although "Carry Me Ohio" and "Last Tide" aren't far behind. As well, they fire things up a bit on the comparatively rockin' "Lily And Parrots". Sure to please fans new and old.
Thuja, beautiful Thuja. While around here (San Francisco) this group of quiet, psychedelic improvisors doesn't get quite the attention we feel they deserve, they do have a devoted, international following of fans. Fans who will be thrilled with these two new releases: a new full-length cd (their third for the Emperor Jones label after one on tUMULt) and a cute lil' 3" cd-r installment in their own Jewelled Antler "Library Series".
All Strange Beasts Of The Past, the full-length, is also a record that should make Thuja some new fans if only folks get exposed to it. It's certainly their most acoustic instrument based, melodic, and folky sounding record to date, veering close to the territory explored by Thuja member Steven R. Smith on his Hala Strana releases. Not that they've abandoned their sticks and stones and drone, in fact you'll find that the last track -- they're all untitled as usual -- is entirely full of ambient grit and rattle and clank and the abstract drone sounds of undisclosed detritus found in the woods. This mellow, maybe menacing, dark forest epic takes up almost half of the disc's running time, and could easily have stood as a fine 3" release on its own. But it makes a great finale, after the shorter, more musically 'conventional' (by Thuja standards) instrumentals that preceeded it. It's as if they finally reached the dragon's lair suggested by the album's title (and wonderful cover photo and other graphics). They're creeping about, exploring a hopefully uninhabited cave, littered with strange glittering treasures and terrible old bones.
Meanwhile, Thuja have also released a new 3" cd-r as we mentioned above: Fable. It's #10 in the series of twelve, getting close to the end, about time for these guys to finally make an appearance (unless you count the almost-Thuja Tomes entry). 20 or so minutes, 2 tracks. Again, the Thujans (Loren Chasse, Rob Reger, Steven R. Smith, and Glenn Donaldson) make some of the most beautiful and mysterious abstract instrumental improv we've heard. All we're told is that Fable was "recorded at night in the Garden of Kains, August 30, 2003". There could have been weird old hippies sitting in, or magical woodland beasts (of the past), or academic dronologists gone a bit strange on natural pharmacueticals...but probably it was just Thuja, and their music is conjuring these imaginary visitors not the other way around. Get this one.
Super limited edition (500 copies) vinyl-only release from our favorite (especially after seeing the reunited band's recent brilliant gig at The Bottom Of The Hill here in San Francisco) Swedish folk-psych-jam band. If our country had been blessed to have them all these years instead of the Grateful Dead, I might have become a hippy and followed them around endlessly, selling hemp chips and utili-kilts to make a living. So maybe it's a good thing that they graced Scandanavia instead. But I digress, Live 1972 is, like the name implies, additional performances of TGOS in their prime and previously unreleased on viny or cd. Each side is one track of TGOS doing what they do best: extended jams. Side one is yet another great take on the Rolling Stones' "Last Time" medlied with TGOS' own "I Ljuset Av Din Dag". So if you dug the two entirely different early '70s live Trad Gras cds 1/2 Special issued last year, buy this and make your turntable happy, hippy.
Rose de Shiraz is the lovely Deluxe-label debut for Vienna's Ulrich Troyer, who previously released a 3" cd on Mego. Troyer's "experimental electronic pop" music is a blend of quirky, downtempo electronics and actual live instrument playing (guitar, bass, clarinet, sax, percussion, etc.), with occasional vocals from friends in Persian, Kurdish, Italian and other languages. The exotic, globetrotting aspect is enhanced by the inclusion of field recordings from such diverse locations as a bazar in Cairo and a market in Mexico. Some Matmos-like weird sound sources (1000 mg calcium dissolving, for instance) are utilized along with the dance-floor beats and romantic melodies... Cut-up but not chaotic, this is a very appealing album, to file with your Tarwater, Mouse On Mars, Amon Tobin, Matmos, etc. discs.
Mathy, maddening, totally infectious protest rock from what's now the Brooklyn-based duo of Tom Hohmann (drums, keys, vocals) and Colin Matthews (guitar, vocals). We've had some of their hand-decorated LPs and cd-rs before, and were happy to see 'em show up on Load with this amazingly 'produced' effort. Their brand of post-hardcore art rock is hard to describe. Maybe a metallic (not metal, just metallic) Deerhoof? Their complexity and power remind us a bit of Ruins, and definitely Lightning Bolt and other Rhode Island spazz rock. Tasheyana Compost is all about rubbery spiraling grooves constructed with cheap keyboards, tinny, twangy, trebly guitar, and energetic drumming. 'Spoken' styled vocals and chants mostly accompany the music, but then in track 9 ("Pastures") some quasi-operatic by comparison vox surface -- cool. Their vibrant music is matched by the day glo pink cd cover with an American Indian drawn on it...they're down with Native Americans and other oppressed peoples, as near as we can tell from the cryptic lyrics. They kinda have a hippy punk political thing going on, I guess? Their great band name is of course a tip off. Allan says: this really freakin' grew on me. I thought it was gonna be all noisy and sloppy but instead, in it's own way, it's *tight* and catchy as heck. Recommended!
With a government that legitimately funds the arts, France has long been at the forefront of sound art, electronic music, and experimentation in general. This tradition began with the inception of INA GRM, a pioneering institution dedicated to advancements in sound experimentation. While the most lasting contribution INA GRM offers is the Musique Concrete experiments of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henri, an impressive list of composers have passed through the INA GRM studios, including Eliane Radigue, Luc Ferrari, Bernard Parmegiani, and Michel Chion. However, the impact of INA GRM has been a blessing and a curse for French sound art, as its institutionality offers impeccable facilities and opportunities to those following the program, while marginalizing those who fall outside of its aesthetics and ideals. The historical splinters and fluctuations of French sound art has not gone unnoticed, as Laurent Dailleau organized the third co-presentation between 23five and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The result of Dailleau's efforts was a 10 hour listening room experience, presenting historical material dating back to the early 1950s.
The CD compendium of 33 RPM celebrates the contemporary models that French composers have employed in response to the historical influences of INA GRM. The artists featured on 33 RPM include Kasper T. Toeplitz, Kristoff K. Roll, Jean-Claude Risset, Lionel Marchetti, Christophe Havel, Laurent Dailleau, Mathieu Chamagne, pizMO, Jean-Phillipe Gross, and Mimetic. Armed with current tools of DSP factories and Max-MSP patches, this selection of French artists tends to concentrate on the acousmatic ends of the electro-acoustic spectrum. As with the two previous 23five / SFMOMA presentations, 33 RPM is a great collection.
We're pretty damn excited by Sun City Girls 33.3 percenter Alan Bishop's new Sublime Frequencies label. "Dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers" Sublime Frequencies is slipping on the shoes apparently discarded by such pioneering labels as Smithsonian Folkways, Nonesuch Explorer, et al. Unlike previous explorers in such unheard music, Sublime Frequencies is not restricted by academic or commercial purposes. The latter probably deserves a bit more explanation; for where much of the post-Explorer purveyors of "world music" shamelessly produce an endless slough of slick garbage that sounds like the crap you can hear on any U.S. top 40 radio station merely sung in another language (Christ, if I had a wooden nickel for every fuckin' starry eyed NPR music review extoling the uniqueness of some generic world music outfit that combines electronic music with traditional folk, yadda, yadda, yadda the world's forests would be clear cut by now) the recordings you'll hear presented by Sublime Frequencies come from the cracks in the pavement of the culture makers. Through field recordings (many made by Bishop himself in his travels), radio and shortwave broadcasts some of the most fucking great music and audio you've never heard has been culled together. Balls to fidelity, none of the artists here would be allowed within 10 miles of a Putamayo AR executive, this is the punk rock of field recordings!
Assembled from cassettes acquired by Alan Bishop through trade or purchase in 1989 while traveling through Sumatra, "Folk And Pop Sounds" contains some of the most obscure recordings of the three initial CD releases from Subliminal Frequencies. Located on the furthest Western edge of the Indonesian archipelago, Sumatra is big (as big as California) and widely unexplored in the audio realm in comparison with its neighboring islands to the East, Java and Bali. The disc begins with the Haba Haba Group in which a male singer is accompanied by flute, two alternating gongs and percussion and secondly by an unknown Sumatran Dangdut (crazy overdriven pop with a heavy Indian film music influence). The most immediately noticeable difference in these recordings from Sumatra to Bali & Java is the overt Arabic influence on the music. The Dangdut track even sounds similar to the music on a Somalian CD, "Jamiila" which we used to sell here years ago before it went out of print. As if to admonish us against generalizations, another later Dangdut track, with runaway farfisa organ, pleasant arppegiating electric guitar and female vocals sounds not dis-similar to the "keroncong" music of The Steps CD from Java released on Warn Defever's Time Stereo label. While the disc may begin innocently enough, the sequencing of the tracks seduces the listener into the strange world of Sumatran music. The very Arabic sounding Indang Pariaman which features a female singer who's melody line interweaves beautifully with end blown wooden flute and some more incredibly nutty buzzing electric keyboard (one can only imagine that the sound is intended to imitate a double reed instrument of old) is moved along by jovial electric bass and casio-rhythm. The combination of acoustic and archaic electric instruments is shamelessly wonderful. Later an orchestra of sorts, complete with violin, electric organ, bass, drums, female voice leads us down a fragrant path that's oddly reminiscent of a Sun City Girls track. Speaking of which, though this one technically isn't, there are a couple of tracks on here which indeed are songs covered by the Girls, can you figure out which ones? Along with the songs proper included here, there are some great excerpts from dramas. The first instance begins with sweet flute and what's supposed to be a rooster crowing, but emulated by what sounds like an old air raid siren played through a broken megaphone. A melodramatic dialogue ensues between a terribly afflicted female and a stoic male voice. needless to say, this one comes highly recommended!
Well, I suppose it had to happen. Or did it? And boy were we torn. On the one hand we really don't want to support this kind of thing. Electro versions of Iron Maiden songs?? But on the other hand, before even hearing it, we knew that we were gonna have to order a ton of 'em, and that we would ALL have to buy one. And as if to seal the deal, we threw it on the stereo the minute we got it, and within 15 seconds a customer was already at the counter telling us they NEEDED whatever we were playing. And our guess is that you're gonna need one too. I mean c'mon ELECTRO versions of IRON MAIDEN songs!! And the timing couldn't be more appropriate with the recent tragic passing of Anton Maiden, the original powerslave, who sang tunelessly over MIDI versions of Iron Maiden songs downloaded from his computer (which some of us liked even more than his singing...). And basically, this is just Anton Maiden with a way bigger budget. Which is a good thing. All those timeless riffs we love and adore played by fuzzed out analog synths and turned into buzzy alien melodies, the throbbing, unmistakable basslines of Steve Harris become burping squelches and rumbling pulses, and of course those dual lead guitar harmonies are transformed into wild squeaky squiggles. Does it work? Hard to say. It does sound great though. Funny and wild and fun and silly. We'd think they were taking the piss, but the liner notes take great pains to explain that the album 'was conceived with the greatest respect' and by having each artist pick their favorite Maiden song and album, often not the track they performed. There are a few familiar names here, Legowelt and Kitbuilders, but most of these artists are new to us (some other names: Captain Ahab, Rude 66, Maxx Klaxon, Ra-X, Imatran Voima, Luke Eargoggle...). The best track has to be Hidari / Platzgumer's Number Of The Beast, which starts so fucked up it's almost impossible to tell what song it is, and the drum programming is so fucked that the rhythm ends up being a damaged and stuttery mess of clicks and crunches. The vocals start out super vocoded and distorted, sounding quite alien / monsterlike, until the clean vocals kick in, and then the melody is sung weirdly, tuneless-y and strangely familiar a la Anton Maiden. Whatever reservations we had were definitely quelled once we heard this whole comp. How could they not be? And it's approved by original Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno himself. A fitting record of the week and for us, a fitting "moment of silence" for Anton Maiden. R.I.P.
We're pretty damn excited by Sun City Girls 33.3 percenter Alan Bishop's new Sublime Frequencies label. "Dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers" Sublime Frequencies is slipping on the shoes apparently discarded by such pioneering labels as Smithsonian Folkways, Nonesuch Explorer, et al. Unlike previous explorers in such unheard music, Sublime Frequencies is not restricted by academic or commercial purposes. The latter probably deserves a bit more explanation; for where much of the post-Explorer purveyors of "world music" shamelessly produce an endless slough of slick garbage that sounds like the crap you can hear on any U.S. top 40 radio station merely sung in another language (Christ, if I had a wooden nickel for every fuckin' starry eyed NPR music review extoling the uniqueness of some generic world music outfit that combines electronic music with traditional folk, yadda, yadda, yadda the world's forests would be clear cut by now) the recordings you'll hear presented by Sublime Frequencies come from the cracks in the pavement of the culture makers. Through field recordings (many made by Bishop himself in his travels), radio and shortwave broadcasts, some of the most amazing music and audio you've never heard has been assembled. Balls to fidelity, none of the artists here would be allowed within 10 miles of a Putamayo A+R executive, this is the punk rock of field recordings!
Radio Java is volume 2 in Sublime Frequencies' catalog, and is an absolutely amazing collection of tracks recorded off of stations in Jakarta, Surabaya, Yokyakarta and Bandung in 1989 by Alan Bishop and Manford Cain. Along with some familiar tunes, including a wealth of amazing Jaipongan tracks from West Java (See "West Java: Sundanese Jaipong and Other Popular Music" we listed from the Nonesuch Explorer series). But along with the snippets of Kerongcong (a bizarre amalgam that sounds like lopsided Hawaiian music) and Dangdut (an electrified pop music with ties to Indian film music) there are some insane cuts from radio commercials, enthusiastic DJ's,theater excerpts that are just plain remarkable. The disc is cobbled together in a channel surfing collage that continues to catch you off guard. Just when you've been lulled into teary-eyed submission by some sultry Sundanese singing, you're treated to a noise blast that would make Masami Akita blush. Radio announcers growl with their microphone inputs overloading, and crazy slapback echo that's just uncomprehensible, a cookoo clock rings and is followed by a strange ringing tone that sounds like early FM Synthesis experiments, and all this from one visit. You know there's more good to come soon, and that's a heartening thought in a world that's ever succombing to the blanding effects of U.S. commercial culture. Wonderful!!
Not sure what it is about Venetian Snares but even when he's doing stuff everyone else is doing, he just does it better. Nothing here is especially groundbreaking or earth shattering, but it just all sounds so fucking good! The master of ADD-plunderphonic-mash-up-big-beat-drum-and-bass splatter/crunch, VS takes everything and the kitchen sink, chops it up, and comes up with some of the best dancefloor clearers we've ever heard. The opening track is all chopped up jazz horns, that quickly devolve into a crunchy digital jungle workout. 'Hand Throw' is probably the best jungle dancehall track we've ever heard, and that's saying a lot! The best track though has to be 'Too Young', a plunderphonic masterpiece based around mutilated snippets of Motley Crue's 'Too Young To Fall In Love'!
For most AQ customers, DJ Z-Trip needs no introduction. Nor does this new live, limited edition (natch) cd from Z-Trip need much of a description! He's the man, what can we say? Along with DJs Jester and Q-bert, Z-Trip is one of AQ's favorite turntablists, always delightfully mashing up the hip hop with classic rock (and doing it *live* not on a computer, as he points out in his liner notes, and as you'll hear on this cd). Sure it's a gimmick, but it works! Plus he's playing this stuff 'cause he loves it. Here he provides 74 more minutes of 'Uneasy Listening' for fans, "to hold you over 'til the major label album drops" as it says on the back of the cd. Sure sounds like a party. Janis Joplin, Outkast, Tool, Black Sabbath, Rush, Run-DMC, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Joan Jett, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, and a zillion other disparate artists all feed into the Z-Trip blender as he shows off his ADD DJing skills at mixing the beats and riffs. Cutting stuff up the way he does, you'll actually hear more classic rock in the 74 minutes of this cd than you would over the same span of time on a radio station like The Bone, ferchrisakes! Z-Trip was kind enough to bring some by the store himself when he was just in town on tour, and he told us he didn't make a whole heck of a lot of 'em -- this is definitely not gonna be in print for long, so be quick or be deadly bummed you didn't get this rockin' Z-Trip document.
