Benjamin Gibbard fans have been tingling with anticipation for this cd for some time now and it's not even his own release! Well folks, the wait is over! We totally knew that a bunch of this Styrofoam cd were gonna fly out the door immediately simply due to the presence of Gibbard as well as some other current notable indie electronic pop darlings, but in case you're curious what the fuss is all about... here's the skinny: Consider this to be a Cinderella transformation of sorts. It's quite startling how much the spark and charm of Nothing's Lost can be so directly and audibly attributed to the talents of all the cool cats that Styrofoam (aka Arne Van Petegem) got to play on it. It's even more irksome that this release is going to be misleadingly filed under the Styrofoam name. A just-above-average electronic popster, Van Petegem gets totally gussied up by the help of many AQ faves -- the aforementioned Postal Service/Death Cab For Cutie's Gibbard, The Notwist's Markus Acher, Alias, LaliPuna's Valerie Trebeljahr, and American Analog Set's Andrew Kenny. The few tracks that are solely Styrofoam's domain are pleasant enough, but stand in stark (i.e, pale) contrast to the others. Now that's saying something right there... in almost every review I've read of Styrofoam's past releases, the word "pleasant" pops up with alarming frequency, and that's the downfall of most of his music, it never veers from the safety zone. Sorta the aural equivalent of some pretty pastel floral wallpaper. Alright, granted our expectations were somewhat raised, but overall this also pales in comparison to each of the individual artists' own work (almost seeming like their unfinished demos or cast-offs)... did they really have to put Gibbard's vocals through the Cher-style auto-tune processor?! The oddest, most jarring inclusion is the rapping by Notwist buddy Alias on the first track "Misguided". It's an eyebrow raiser, for sure. Really, the most credit that can be given to Van Petegem is for his savvy in assembling such an of-the-moment cast. We don't want to be totally down on this release, but feel the results are less (rather than more) than the sum of its parts. That said, those of you who can't stand to wait any longer for the next Postal Service, Death Cab, Lali Puna release might find just enough here to tide you over!
Now all serious connoisseurs of depression, death, doom and utter grimness have reason to celebrate. No, we're certainly not talking about G.W. Bush's second-term inauguration! It's music we're going on about, and for fans of that brand of heavy, doomful drone that we know so many of you AQ-customers are, this IS good news: the re-release of the debut album from not-so-dynamic doom duo SUNNO)))! Yes! So log off of eBay, save your ninety bucks (that's what Southern Lord says the original cd was going for) and thank 'em for at last reissuing this disc, previously out on Hydrahead subsidary HH Noise Industries back in 2000. Now this classic comes packaged in a jewel case, instead of a spray painted hefty bag sleeve. And yes, there's a BONUS TRACK. Sixteen minutes and forty seconds of bonus track entitled "Grimm & Bear It"...those jokers. That brings this album to over 72 minutes in length, perfect for enjoying your own mini-coma in its ambient embrace. Of all the SUNNO))) cds since, this remains perhaps the closest to the original template of worshipping Earth II to a T.
For some "historical" perspective (and for any who are puzzled, to explain that last comment), let's revist our original review of this disc, upon its first release:
"Whoa, an Earth tribute band! Y'know, Earth, the slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo from a few years back, the band that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. They're not around anymore (and weren't that great toward the end anyway) but this project (featuring members of Burning Witch/Goatsnake/Engine Kid) revisits Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em), for some long long tracks of primordial dirge. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course the band name Sunn is derived from the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes, but are essentially following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy!"
Southern Lord resurrected and reissued this release a while back, but we just realised we hadn't yet listed it and figured that we really ought to, for the benefit of all you SUNNO))) obsessives out there who might have missed it. Thorr's Hammer was the deadly, doomful blackened sludge band that featured the SUNNO))) duo of Greg Anderson ("drones and sunns") and Stephen O'Malley ("crust and earth"), along with battledrummer Jamie Skes, subsonic attacker James Hale, and, last but certainly not least, vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter. She being an authentic teenage blonde Norwegian and astonishingly capable of spewing gruff, vile vokills as ugly as she isn't. The band broke up when she went back to Oslo, which we're sure made them all very sad. But Thorr's Hammer left the legacy of 1998's Dommedagsnat album: four generally epick tracks of creeping, crushing dooom, plus for this reissue, a raw bonus track mpeg video of the band playing live in '95. So, get down in the dirt and get doomy with this, one of the blackened, gnarled roots of these guys' twisted family tree, other ropey branches being Burning Witch, Khanate, Goatsnake, and SUNNO))).
Ok. First of all, this is a concerto for electric guitar and toy orchestra. TOY ORCHESTRA!! Six women and an array of children's toys and noisemaking devices intended for varying age groups. Fred Frith, as you may or may not know, is a well-known improvisational guitarist, who, over the years has worked with the likes of John Zorn and others. If anyone could play with a toy orchestra and do it right, it'd be Frith. The highly disciplined result is at the very least interesting and novel, and at most quiet emotionally evocative!
And another Kawabata team-up. Here the hairiest, hardest-working guitarist in the Acid Mothers universe goes into Pataphysical Overdrive with French instrumental post-rock outfit Ueh, whose now out of print double cd on the AMT label was much liked around these parts. Actually this is part split, part collaboration. Two tracks are just Ueh, one just Kawabata, and one finds 'em both inhabiting the same cosmos together. It's 56 minutes in length total though so it's no mere ep. Apparently these discs were issued for a Ueh tour of the US last summer, which we sadly missed out on, dang it.
Of the two Ueh tracks, one's an 18 minute mellow epic, and the other a perhaps uncharacteristically jangly, 3-4 minute poppy rock number that blasts into distorted washes of pataphysical overdrive midway. Meanwhile, the Ueh/Kawabata collab is a nice skitterish krauty droner, and then Kawabata takes over by himself to finish things up with a 23 minute track that combines floating, gossamer beauty with some slightly skronked, damaged primitive psych guitar soloing. No "overdrive" here, it's a lot more lazy and nod-like and plaintive sounding than that word would imply!
Along with the Bogus Blimp reviewed recently, here's another new Jester title, from this Autechre-ish glitchtronica act from Norway. We liked their first, self-titled album quite well, and now they're back with Obliterated...and again it's what you might call extreme IDM, a complicated construction of clicks and cuts and beats and yes some melodies. Machine music madness! A nicely done return (let us wax nostalgic) to the exciting heyday, not so long ago, of stuff like Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Squarepusher at their most complex and bewilderingly beat-frenzied craziest.
Okay, if you could choose anyone to make you a classic black metal mix tape, who would it be? Andee? Allan? Well, yeah obviously, but we mean what if you could choose ANYONE? Yep, we'd probably pick Fenriz too. Leader of the mighty Darkthrone, Fenriz definitely knows his black metal first hand. And his selections certainly demonstrate that. And there's even some unlikely choices that perhaps indicate some friend rock influence. But even so, this is a seriously kick ass, introduction to TRUE, CULT old-school black metal. Tracks from Blasphemy, Sarcofago, Celtic Frost, Nattefrost, Mercyful Fate, Sodom, Tormentor, Aura Noir, Destruction, Samael, Bulldozer, Mayhem, Hellhammer, Burzum, Venom and Bathory. Plus cool, funny liner notes. Recommended schoolin'.
A '70s funk/soul rarities comp called Funky Funky Detroit has gotta be good, right? Or, to put it another way, it had better be good! And this one sure enough lives up to the Motor City's reputation for funk supremacy. It's a collection of rare and unreleased tracks from the vaults of the Big Hit, Northern and Sport record labels, circa '67-'78. Big Hit and Northern were both owned by Johnnie Mae Matthews, a talented Detroit soul veteran also responsible for the production and quite a lot of the songwriting on the cuts found here. She also was the mother of Kaiya and Artwell Matthews, musicians who co-founded what seems to have been a pretty bad-ass funk band called Black Nasty, based on the six tracks they contribute here. Along with Black Nasty, this 17-track comp includes such artists as The Dramatics, Little Daddy Walton, Herbie Thompson, Calvin Williams, and Lynn Day -- with Black Nasty backing up some of these singers as well. So it's quite a funky family affair documented here. For fans of the funk, definitely worth checking out, especially if you liked that Midwest Funk comp we reviewed a while back on Jazzman. Good stuff to get down with.
The single biggest seller, hands down, of all of the Jamaican music we stock is, without a doubt Lee Perry's Kung Fu Meets The Dragon on Justice League. We're certain that what initially draws people to it is its classic cartoon cover art with a three headed man/dragon, a kung fu posing Upsetter and Chinese iconography to drive the point home. But what keeps this album from ever returning used to the store is the fact that it's just plain great. It's classic, demented, Black Ark era Lee Perry, filled with sonic burps, imponderable engeneering choices and just plain great rhythms and dynamite playing throughout. So does it sound like we're trying to sell you a different album here? Well, I'd (Byram) say that Kung Fu Meets The Dragon is a classic album that needs to be in anyone's collection if they're going to have any dub at all. What we have here is another Trojan theme disc and, one could say, a completely different dish of curried goat all together. So if you get both, your going to have some overlap, once again. There's only just so much classic material out there. Having said that, this is a decent disc in its own right. A great party album, sure. Subtracting the eight Upsetter tracks here that are included on Kung Fu Meets The Dragon and you've still got 15 tracks including a cover of Kung Fu Fighting by Lloyd Parks, several from Prince Jammy (not to be out done by the Upsetter he recorded his own Kamikaze Dub album back in 1979), Big Youth, Junior Byles, Barrington Levy, Linval Thompson, Keith Hudson, Augustus Pablo, Tommy McCook and Dave & Ansel Collins. Be prepared however for a great deal of tracks that pay homage to the martial arts in song title alone. Some will have you scratching your head trying to figure out what the connection is. That aside, it's a great deal of fun. We just wish we could say the cover art was as nice as Kung Fu Meets The Dragon.
Hot on the heels of the first volume, Subliminal Sounds has released this second collection of Thai garage beat pop go-go madness. And we have to say it's better than the first. Much better (and cheaper too). Like the first volume the tracks here are all distinct replicas of popular music from the Occident of the late sixties. Some notable covers include the King's "All Shook Up", Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'aime Moi Non Plus" and The Beatles' "Lady Madonna". What makes this collection stand out for us though is both the inclusion of a wider range of severely demented production aesthetics and a great deal more songs that, vocally, sound more Thai. The album starts off with a bang to Viparat Piengsuwan's "YoK YoK" with chipper plosive vocals that could only come from Thailand. So cute it'll make you barf. Not skipping a beat we're led into Surapon's "Ding Dong", which sounds like a seriously fucked up deconstruction of the "Surfing Bird". A little later Waipot Petsuwan's "Mia Chaa" throws a monkey wrench into our expectations with a dreamy ellyptical vocal line -- that sounds reminiscent of Mo Lam -- over an otherwise standard garage beat tune, instantly transforming it into a classic. Then, of course, there's some demented production like excessive reverb in the oddest places and a strange Thai version of the Chipmonks that'll have you spitting your lunch out your nose. Highly recommended!
Another vinyl only release from the Tower Recordings' Matt Valentine and it's a doozy. Two massive sides of druggy, psychedelic drone folk clatter. Side A starts with a dreamy smear of reverbed banjo, very gorgeous and thick. Quickly gives way to an extended spaced out clattery free form jam, definitely informed by No Neck Blues Band and the like. Side B is a hazy, shimmery raga of sonic swirls and buzzing melodies, very reminiscent of Vibracathedral Orchestra or Sunroof!.
Pressed on gorgeous swirled green vinyl and of course limited.
From John Fahey to Jack Rose, we've reviewed loads of amazing modern Appalachia, from straight folk / bluegrass to buzzing droning acoustic ragas. But this just might be the perfect mix of the two, and thus may be the nicest chunk of acoustic / Appalachia / Raga / drone / avantfolk EVER. Really. Tower Recordings' Matt Valentine and Erika Elder give us nine tracks that slip smoothly back and forth between delicate, fingerpicked acoustic bluegrass and almost straight folk workouts, to snarling swirls of dense acoustic drones, with thick buzzing melodies, that wrap you in thick layers of shifting overtones and prickly hum. The vast (and unlikely) instrumentation: guitar, cumbus, oscillator, harmoniaca, big muff, carhorn, dogs, tamboura, kecapi, wood flute, Indian flute, pennywhistle, kazoo, percussion, sruti box, and siren help make the sound super dense and super rich and totally all enveloping. Limited, sorry.
It's been a long couple years since we've had a Greg Weeks record proper. But those years weren't spent idle, not at all, instead he spent that time recording and performing with his group Espers, a much folkier and much more ethereal affair than his solo stuff. The Espers record was absolutely breathtaking, sweet and druggy and folky, with angelic female vocals alongside cellos, dulcimers and flutes. Thankfully Weeks' new record takes some of that more ethereal wispiness and weaves it into the darker, tenser psych-doom-folk he records under his own name. Fuzzy keyboards and warbling synths lay down ominous drones as a prickly sonic bed for delicately fingerpicked minor key guitars, moaning cellos, swooning mournful melodies, distant spacey blips, suffling understated drumming, heartfelt, multitracked vocals, all very hazy and druggy and otherworldly. Not quite as 'weird' as his previous full length Awake Like Sleep, Blood Is Trouble sounds, as much as I hate to say it, more mature. Which is not a bad thing at all. The songs are more fully realized, and don't rely as heavily on weird instrumentation. Beautiful and heartfelt, in different hands this could have been a classic singer songwriter sort of record, but Weeks manages to transform it into a hazy psychedelic gem, equal parts Incredible String Band, Low and Nick Drake. Or something like that. You get the drift. This is just an amazing and beautiful record. Psych folk fans will love it for sure, but it's just accessible enough to maybe 'turn on' the rest of you!
Wu Tang. Greatest hits. What else do you need? If you're too lazy or too stupid or just too out of touch to already own all these records, you can pick this up and play like you made yourself a mix cd from your old lps! This is classic shit!
In our book, any Richard Youngs you don't have is Richard Youngs you SHOULD have. But this one especially is a crucial Youngs document: it's a reissue of Youngs' first ever LP, originally released in a vinyl-only edition of 300 copies on his own No Fans record label. This is actually the second time this has been reissued on cd -- Table Of The Elements did it before, but let it go out of print. So Jagjaguwar gets kudos for bringing it back, as it's an important and amazing release in the body of work of someone we at AQ consider a bit of a genius. You NEED it. Especially if you've already fallen in love with Youngs unique brand of experimental, folkish improv music. Here it's almost a religious rite, a 3-part droning minimalist mantra that incorporates (in a gradually additive fashion) piano, voice, oboe and electric guitar. Its repetitive beauty put it in Alan Licht's "Minimalist Top Ten" article in Halana magazine some ways back... and it is a primal example of what we find always so compelling about Richard Youngs' records. Although it doesn't emulate the raga form, Advent does seem like it might be perhaps meant for a specific time of day, and has that special spiritual/contemplative quality -- though some listeners might not be able to meditate so well with Youngs' bagpipe-like oboe keening away! Slow, simple (and simply gorgeous), and most of all so very sincere-sounding, Advent was the wonderful beginning to what has been an uncommon career.
