This gent might be most familiar to folks as being the guitarist in many of the most prominent bands in the Chicago postrock scene. Yup, he's played in Isotope 217, Chicago Underground Duo (and Trio and Quartet and Orchestra... you get the picture) and of course Tortoise. That said his musical leanings frequently delve into considerably more avant garde and free jazz territory. He has participated in numerous collaborations, but he's also plenty prolific on his own. The Relatives marks his second full length on which he's the captain steering the ship (his first was 2003's Like-Coping on Delmark Records). And well, to put it kindly, this is perhaps his most accessible work to date... verging on easy-listening soft jazz. Dinner jazz even. Very skillfully executed tapioca.
The choice of Partch works selected for this third volume of his music highlight the corporeal aspects of his art: be it incorporating dance and drama into his compositions or scoring for films. One piece, "Rotate The Body In All Of Its Planes" (1961), was even written for gymnasts while performing at the Collegiate Gymnastics Championship at the University of Illinois Charles Pond and later preserved onto film by Madeline Tourtelot. "Windsong" (1958) is another composition for a film collaboration with Tourtelot. The first piece on the disc, "The Dreamer That Remains" (1972) was Partch's last completed work. Commissioned by long time friend Betty Freeman, The Dreamer was a largely autobiographical work, detailing childhood memories, his hoboing days and even outing himself to the world -- something that caused Freeman some consternation at the time. The final piece, "Water! Water! -- An Intermission With Prologues And Epilogues" (1961), is a satyrical piece of theater postulating that the greatest satisfaction for the audience in any performance was the arrival of intermission when they could finally leave their seats for some refreshments.
The Important Records sticker that's plastered to the shrinkwrap of this album plainly states that "this is the most purely electronic record Piano Magic has ever made." Yes, that is certainly true; although the mood and atmosphere of Opencast Heart is no different hear than on previous Piano Magic records, as Glen Johnson (who's Piano Magic's chief songwriter / producer and only returning member of each incarnation for the band) continues to spin delicate, precious songs whose fragility hint at something slightly dark and wintery. With the icy electronic whirrs and naked vocals from both Johnson and chanteuse Angele David-Guillou, Opencast Heart has more in common with the Mark Van Hoen / Locust recordings than with the archetypal 4AD sound that Johnson had reified on the Piano Magic classic album Low Birth Weight.
Now on their fourth full length release, the Pickpocket Ensemble continue to pursue the Middle Eastern direction that they had begun to explore in their last outing If I Were A Highway (2003). The core lineup remains the same with frontman Rick Corrigan on accordion, Marguerite Ostrovski on violin, Tim Fox on guitar and assisted on a couple tracks by some additional clarinet and cello. Along with the increased concentration on pan-Mediterranean strains of music, the group has picked up a lot more confidence in their playing, taking more time to fully flesh out songs, with Corrigan, Ostrovski and Fox each taking turns with solos and building their counterpoint as they do. Further, more and more complex and interesting time signatures seem to be the order of the day on Fingerpainting In Red Wine. Interesting developments from an always interesting group.
Strangely enough (or not?) for someone who spends a lot of their time writing music reviews, I just LOVE to read music reviews. And if it's reviews of old heavy metal records, even better! And there's few reviewers whose reviews I get as much of a kick out of as those of Canadian heavy metal opinionmeister Martin Popoff. Back in 1997 he wrote a book -- a tome, in truth, with 3,740 reviews -- entitled The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal, itself an update of Popoff's previously published opus Riff Kills Man: 25 Years Of Hard Rock & Heavy Metal (a mere 1,942 reviews in that one). And that wasn't enough. So now he's back, revising and expanding the his ultimate heavy metal review resource into not one but three volumes, one per decade of metal, starting with this one, devoted to pretty much anything that rocked out and exhibited some degree of heaviosity in the '70s! And some relevant late '60s albums sneak in too. Hundreds upon hundreds of albums are covered here, each getting a paragraph-or-two review and ratings on not one but two 10-point scales: first for heaviness (which in Martin's world seems more akin to "metalness") and a second for simply just how much Martin likes the album in question. These two scores often correlate but not always. And of course it's not clear that these faux-scientific numerical rankings are a good idea, since it leads to silly comparisons... Blue Cheer's Vincebus Eruptum gets a "6" for heaviness (I woulda gone higher!) while he gives the same rating to Jo Jo Gunne's Jumpin' The Gunne. And they actually both get the same quality rating too, both 6's. Huh? But that is part of the charming eccentricity of this book and its author. Agree with him or not, he'll still get you stoked on some great music.
That's the best thing about this -- that despite the title, it's not really a "collector's" guide. That is, it's not at all about what's rare and valuable and hard to find and that sort of thing. Sure, the occasional ridiculous eBay price gets mentioned, and Martin will bring up some peculiarity of a reissue or whatever if he thinks it's interesting. But what this book is REALLY about is the music, something that most "collector's guides" barely ever even seem concerned with amidst concerns about rarity and monetary value. Sure, Martin's a collector, i.e., he's got lots of records. And so am I. But the motivation for the collecting -- and review-writing -- is an abiding love for the "Greatest Music In The World" (as Martin puts it, and I won't argue) and a desire to share that excitement. So don't come to this book expecting to read a lot about different vinyl pressings and suchlike, thank god. And indeed, part of Martin's mission here is to dispel some collector's myths. He wants to examine some so-called "collector's holy grails" and see if they really stand up against the more popular, better-known bands in the heaviness stakes. Some do, but the point he's making is that just 'cause something costs $500 for an original pressing doesn't mean it's in the same league musically as, say, the Scorpions LP you can still pick up for relatively cheap at a flea market. Kind of a record-collector reality check. And that's good...although of course I'm still drooling over some of these hard-to-find obscurities regardless! And that's what this is for too... covering as it does everything from the obvious (Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen...) to the obscure (Buffalo, I Teoremi, Leafhound, Bang, Jerusalem...). And Martin devotes a bit of space at the beginning of the book explaining how the definition of heavy metal in the '70s is a bit broader than in later decades, as he includes in lots of stuff that the average headbanger today wouldn't consider metal, from hard rock (Foreigner, Aerosmith, Foghat...) to punk acts (The Stooges, DMZ, The Damned, The Saints, Sex Pistols...) to some harder prog and krautrock. But "heavy metal" meant something a little different back in the '70s anyway (as any reader of Black To Comm 'zine will confirm).
There's very few omissions I could think of (and lots of stuff in here I'd never even heard of before!). He even includes an appendix listing bands that you might think (from the name or album cover) are heavy that aren't! And after hours of reading I've only come across one factual mistake. Opinion-wise, there's more to argue with -- as I said, I don't always agree with his reviews, but they're enthused and amusing and even if he trashes an album I personally love I still read it with a chuckle. For a music (and heavy '70s rock) junkie like me, this is a real can't put down page turner like some people find the latest Stephen King or John Grisham. His style is sportswriterly colourful, sometimes just a little crazed, and real conversational. I shouldn't make this review any longer than it is already by quoting from Popoff's prose, but here's a sample from his (10/10) review of Black Sabbath's Sabotage: "...a tour de force from a quartet improbably tormented by the demons of genius and more probably towel-whipped by the gnomes of stupidity." Nice.
Getting into this guy's music n' metal-mad mind, with all his rankings and charts and appendices and personal reminicences is amazing. And as a fellow-review writer, can I just say how freaking impressed I am with his accomplishment here? Pretty much essential for any historical-minded metalhead or retro-rocker who likes to read! Oh yeah, plus there's a bonus cd comp with tracks from the Monster records reissue roster.
Along with composing the scores for some of Werner Herzog's greatest films, Florian Fricke was as much a musical pioneer as were his contemporaries Faust, Neu and Cluster. Unlike his contemporaries, Fricke's music is informed as much by music from arounds the world as it was rock and classical composition (in which he was schooled). Sitars, pan flutes and assorted ethnic percussion have as much a place in any given Popol Vuh album as moog synths, guitars, bass and drums. One only need look at his choice of a band name, taken from the title of a sacred Mayan text, to see where Fricke's affinities lay.
Affenstunde, recorded in 1970, was Popol Vuh's first album. The four original album tracks are a combination of dark, droning synth soundscapes, hippy drum circle-ish drum james and improvised moog keyboard workouts. Imagine if you could crunch the bubbly synth era of Tangerine Dream into their dark, early days circa Electronic Meditation and Alpha Centari. In contrast to his later works for film, Affenstunde is much more textural, intentionally devoid of any melody. As a bonus this remastered edition, like the others in this series, comes with an additional -- previously unreleased -- track from the same period. And that cover picture! Hard to resist.
Dagnabit, if we didn't know this was Archer Prewitt, we're not sure if we'd be touching it with a ten foot pole! Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but even if it is, that's a still pretty unsettling thought, isn't it? I mean, we've loved many of his past recordings (particularly his solo debut In The Sun and EVERYTHING with the Coctails), and new Prewitt albums are always warmly anticipated around these parts. So what's the deal? Well, in a blind listening test, the words "soft rock" and "mainstream" immediately sprung to mind. Many songs on Wilderness sound like something you'd have dialed in on your AM Radio back in the '70s... and not necessarily in a cool Eagles-y or Fleetwood Mac-y bewitching kind of way though... no, more like Bread or England Dan & John Ford Coley (meaning: solid, sentimental, adult contemporary pop). Not that that is any surprise really, you might recall us comparing Prewitt's voice on his last album Three to James Taylor. Okay, that's not always such a bad thing, but Prewitt used to insert details and personality quirks that gave each song a little edge and made it stick in your head... and made you happy that it was stuck there. Those have grown increasingly scarce with each subsequent album. Hate to say it, but the very smooth'n'elegant Wilderness just may be a little TOO smooth'n'elegant. Actually fans of ultra mellow pop a la Kings Of Convenience might find this album quite to their liking.
During the fall of 2004, I (Jim) had the privledge of travelling to Australia for a month or so. Well, I guess that technically makes it *spring* of 2004; anyway, I met a lot of great people who had some amazing record collections, including a bunch of Australian post-punk and new wave stuff that probably never made it outside of Melbourne or Sydney. Of everything that I heard, there were a few bands that stuck in my memory: the Laughing Clowns, Microfilm (which happened to be the first band of Lisa Gerrard who later went on to found Dead Can Dance), and then there was the Primitive Calculators which was by far the best thing I heard. After asking around about those recordings, it became clear that I was probably going to be out of luck or out of a ton of money. So, I simply filed those band names away in hopes of coming across them somewhere, sometime, somehow. You could imagine my surprise when I discovered a compilation from the Primitive Calculators in a box from one our distributors. It's sort of like Christmas when you get that cool gift that you forgot you asked for, instead of the ugly sweater or pair of wool socks from Grandma. Anyway, The Primitive Calculators were Melbourne's answer to the Screamers, although I'd be hard pressed to believe that they actually heard that legendary techno-punk ensemble. It was more likely that The Primitive Calculators came to their sound through Suicide and the No New York compilation, in particular DNA and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Their intense, throbbing post-punk songs centered around the raw electricity of twin synthesizers and drum machines hammering out noxious arppegiations whilst the lead singer / guitarist Stuart Grant screamed, grunted, and scraped up and down his guitar in short, sharp blasts of epileptic energy. This CD documents their one and only LP, which was a live recording in which the audience appears to dwindle despite the fact that their set gets more and more intense, culminating in a ridiculous cover of Lloyd Williams' soul standard "Shout." Fortunately a bunch of their studio recordings round out the CD, giving their exceptional songs a much fuller sound. Even without the serendipitous experience of re-discovery, I'd still love this record!
Sometimes, only death metal really hits the spot. Some of you know exactly what we mean. Every once in a while, you're just in the mood for good 'ol big dumb, thrashy hair spinning, denim jacketed, leather spiked, knee-to-the-groin, splattery, grindy, buzzy, grunted and growled old school death metal. And it certainly doesn't hurt when you mix in some super-tech goregrind and occasional moshy metalcore and once in a while even some weird stretched out static-drone-riffs. In fact that just turns helps turn decent death metal into really cool and seriously fucked up death metal. So thus, we have Putrescence (featuring members of the recently reviewed Head Hits Concrete), who spew forth a torrent of sick sick , downtuned, buzzsaw death metal. With rumbling cookie monster vocals, illegible logo, severed bloody head album art, pentagram-made-out-of-scalpels disc art, ridiculous song titles ("Blood Loss And Trauma From A Vengeful Hatchet Assault To Penile Shaft", "Gunked Up Tree Chipper", "Ebola Infected Plane Crash Victims Raining On A Church Picnic", "Detrunked Wizard Hacked To Bloodied Ribbons" and more!), a sick album title (Mangled, Hollowed Out And Vomit Filled) and of course appropriately evil / stupid band member names and instrumentation credits. "Soiled Depends: studded crotch packed with dope, pants caked with shizzat. Grimmgore: grapefruit clutching six string Satan worship, mass poseur slayings. Dark Lord Skullbong: severer of ties with sobriety, unholy beast summoning. Necromagnon: cataclysmic thunder and reeks of shit from beyond the grave." Yep. Throw in a handful of funny / creepy samples and let 'er rip. Actually the more we listen to this, the more you can tell this isn't 'real' death metal, but actually death metal played by grindcore geeks with a wicked sense of humor.. Which is most definitely a good thing! It's all just way too grindingly technical and weirdly arranged. On one level it may be a pisstake on how goofy metal is, but at the same time, it's also one ultra-pummelling, massively crushing slab of deathgrind brutality!
How can you not love Rammstein? Huge metallic riffs. Pounding thunderous Teutonic rhythms. Uber-grandiose fist pumping anthems. Crystal clear perfect production. And let's not forget the live spectacle of flames and explosions and fireworks (and of course the infamous flame-throwing codpiece). They are the perfect blend of orchestral black metal bombast a la Cradle Of Filth / Dimmu Borgir and Laibach style Wagnerian industrial pomp. Plus when they lock into a groove, they sound strangely like Finnish hypno-rockers Circle. Which is ALWAYS a good thing. This is probably the best Rammstein record yet. The songs are heavy and catchy and weird and really really good. All of the above sonic elements are in full effect, with lots of that Circle-ish mesmer we can't get enough of, as well as a couple standout tracks, a really biting anti-America song that is sung in English, with lyrics that reference the Wonderbra (!) and Coca-Cola and explain that "This is not a love song, I don't sing my mother tongue", a track sung partially in Russian, as well as a really amazing track with killer female vocal counterpoint. Plus strings, a choir, a full orchestra, and of course vocalist Till Lindemann's instantly recognizable, totally menacing, low low low growl. So good. Another band who if you can get beyond the endless 'hype' and media bullshit, will totally and completely kick your ass.
A six-song debut EP from this SF trio. Gently swaying postrock that bring to mind the fine college rock bands from the '90s like Seam, Ida and Versus. Swells of quiet/loud/quiet electric guitars, hushed vocals and washy cymbals build atop the solid bass and drums. Very pretty and wistful.
AQ-fave underground psych-folk troubadour Ben Chasny hits the "big time" with this Drag City debut. Ok, Drag City's not a major label but it's a popular indie. If this was the '70s, he'd have been flown out to a rented mansion in LA by the label, where he'd have spent months recording in drug-fuelled debauchery. It being just boring old now, we're sure that didn't happen. Despite that, Ben still steps up and delivers with this new Six Organs opus of his. Not that he's ever disappointed, but this could be one of his best. And it is in fact his first ever actual studio-recorded release. The Basho/Fahey guitar pickin', the pagan folk, the cosmic mystic vibes... all shining through. And with School Of The Flower he reveals his obsession with the music of one Gary Higgins, an obscure '70s singer-songwriter who did a now much-talked-of-in-certain-circles LP entitled Red Hash. Until someone tracks him down (according to the liner notes, Drag City is trying), the closest you'll probably get to hearing it is the cover of his "Thicker Than A Smokey" that appears here!
FYI: the music on track five ("Home") is basically the bass line for Rod Stewart's "Ooh La La" played on acoustic guitar!
Of the very many, very special tines of the Jewelled Antler, it's the Skygreen Leopards perhaps who are best known for airy-fairy folk songcraft. The pastoral folk duo of Donovan Quinn (Verdure, Horticultural Compass) and Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Ivytree, Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, Franciscan Hobbies, Horticultural Compass, etc. etc.), with the occasional help of their "Skyband", have now brought us their third or so album proper (for which the LP-only and now-out-of-print Child God In The Garden Of Idols reviewed last list was but a hazy prelude). Listen in to these boys strumming and singing and lazing about in a sunny Sunday sound-world, grooving with the birds in the trees and the flowers in the fields, into which they've introduced flute and organ and, above all, their voices. Voices that are a little bit Richard Youngs, a little bit Ariel Pink... breathy and high and delicate. As suggested by the artwork -- one of Glenn's lovely nature-fantasia collages -- this is the words and music of fragile fluttering butterflies thinking deep thoughts, mystical thoughts...not that the quasi-religious themes of the lyrics are all that easy to decipher within the raw Jewelled Antler production aesthetic.
Second album (third if you count the live one) from this Bay Area band (ex-Idiot Flesh) of musical maniacs into math and metal and, uh, museums. Herking and jerking heavily, this is surely some theatrical, bombastic prog, like a gothic industrial version of, say, Mr. Bungle, with both male and female vocals. At (rapid) turns spastic, melodic, melancholic, complex and controlled... Maybe a bit over-the-top for some -- too thespian for rock and roll y'know -- but definitely a good fit for the Web of Mimicry label and that whole surreal circusy scene, so fans of the Secret Chiefs and (of course) Sleepytime themselves will be well pleased.
This is the debut recording from this Chicago trio of damaged hippie primitivists who unleash a miasmic flow of creepy, primal free-folk ragas woven from guitars, cellos, autoharp, melodica, harmonium, spike fiddle(!), mbira, piano, violin, voice and percussion. Childlike and playful, innocent and haunting, disturbing and dreamy, eliciting acid fried flashbacks to such pagan classics as Comus, Current 93, the Wicker Man and of course NNCK and the Sunburned Hand!
Well, if you've been in mourning about the demise of beloved band Guided By Voices (who played their final show this past New Year's Eve), you can take some solace in the fact that its individual former members haven't stopped making music... nor playing it live! This is a double cd of a complete Tobin Sprout performance in Toronto last year. From the very first unmistakable guitar strum, it's a definite fan pleaser filled with lots of old Sprout/GBV favorites and plenty of crowd hoots and hollerin'. Added bonus: demo versions of even more old faves "And I Wonder", "Inside Your Serious", "Over Then, and Back Again".
After just reviewing one of our old favorite records, Chavez's Gone Glimmering, we were pretty darned excited to discover that the new Bonny Prince Billy record was actually a collaboration between Will Oldham (aka BPP) and Matt Sweeney from Chavez! Sweeney also just happened to front one of our favorite eighties/nineties college rock outfits Skunk (someone should definitely resissue the first Skunk lp on cd!!) as well as playing guitar in the post Smashing pumpkins supergroup Zwan. This collaboration was born of a challenge, Oldham had Sweeney write music, and Oldham would then write the lyrics and they would record the record together. The overall result is not immediately all that different than a Palace or Bonny Prince Billy record. The vocals are still sweet and warbly, the music is still twangy and mournful. But Sweeney has definitely come up with some beautiful tunes, well written but also nicely arranged, often augmented by big drums and rich keyboards, much less spartan than a lot of Oldham's past recordings. And a bit more rocking, with hints of the Allman Brothers, seventies rock, fuzzy psychedelia, and once or twice some big crashing chords and wailing leads that are straight out of the Skunk / Chavez songbook. Sweeney's vocals sound perfect with Oldham's, the two weaving and harmonizing beautifully. And of course Oldham's lyrics are as wry and cryptically sweet as ever. This definitely ranks up there with Ease On Down The Road and Master And Everyone as one of Oldham's finer moments.
For six bucks, this is a great little nugget of Tussle! Moreso a sweet morsel for the discodubby DJ, this 12" is a good start for those still caught unawares by the perma-lockgroove styles from this San Francisco fourpiece; nom: Tussle. Actually, if you're gonna buy one thing, it best be the Kling Klang (their full-length debut that came out late last year). Still, Here It Comes! + Lockgrooves! has the tiltle track, a punky electro-noise workout that totally kills and two alternate versions, one a DSP / Banghra freakout, and the other a super laid back Neu-ish groove.
Now on vinyl!
Greg Dulli is a strange strange man. After fronting the very ungrunge grunge outift the Afghan Whigs, he struck out on his own, giving in fully to his all consuming obsessions, sex and soul music. The later Afghan Whigs records hinted at his proclivities, certainly his creepy, depraved sex life was already on display for all to see (much like mope rockers Arab Strap) and said soul music was gradually seeping through the cracks of the Whigs songs. Unfortunately those later Whigs records reflected a band that didn't quite seem to know how to handle Dulli's drive for musical soulfulness and sonic sensuality. Things not easily conveyed in the standard rock format. Thus those records were blunted and not all that effective, syrupy instead of emotionally charged, and sonically not all that inspired. That all changed with the Twilight Singers. A sexy swaggering, dark and dangerous rock band, infused with sweet soul and tragic heartbreak. The last Twilight Singers record, ...Plays Blackberry Belle, was an absolutely gorgeous album, an emotionally devastating sonic map of Dulli's battered and bruised soul. Much like the Afghan Whigs classic Gentlemen, it was a dark and brutal collection of ultra personal songs, equally capable of moving you to tears as it was of making you want to drag Dulli into an alley and beat the shit out of him. While She Loves You is not quite as powerful, it does manage to convey many of the same emotions, bitterness, lonliness, unrequited love, seething hate, undying love, through a curious, but perfectly chosen collection of covers. Songs by Bjork, Fleetwood Mac, Mary J. Blige, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye and more, all deep and devastating in their own right, manage to become even darker and moodier and sound like they could have come straight from Dulli's own poison pen. Drunken waltzes, stuttering loping drums, rumbling ambience, creepy minor key piano all underscore Dulli's tortured vocals, sometimes an urgent whisper, but more often an anguished wail. Mark Lanegan contributes vocals to many of the tracks, his world weary, whiskey soaked drawl adding even more emotional weight. There's been lots of mixed reactions to this record around here, and if you don't already dig Dulli and the Afghan Whigs, this record is not likely to change your mind. But those of you who already like to stroll through Dulli's dark and dreary world of love and sex and death will feel right at home.
This second volume of Sumatran music does not disapoint. Not at all. Different than the music of Java and Bali, the Arabic influence on Sumatran music is unmistakable. More than that though, Sumatran music seems to not only include a wide variety of influences from near and far, but seems to wear it on its sleeve. And yet, despite the insane amount of musical diversity, the Arabic thread runs strongly through every single track here. The 17 tracks on this disc feature some eight different genres of music from Sumatra. The Rabab Dangdut cuts tend to be like the country music of Sumatra. At least that's what the scratchy fiddle parts immediately sound like to a western ear. But melodies and the interaction between the vocals and fiddle are slightly reminiscent of Thai Mo Lam. Add on top of this some ska rhythm guitar, electric bass and drums and things start to get a little thick. The other styles are no less odd. The Orkes Gambus are all orchestral numbers with oud, huge sounding violin sections, electric organs and female vocals. In a blind listening test one might guess the origins as Syria or Egypt. The Tari Minang tracks are about as close to Java as you'll get here. Along with a small gamelan ensemble are Arabic double reeds, flutes and female vocals. Like the first volume, there's nary a dud on this one. Highly recommended!
Anyone, ANYONE, who likes their psych all spaced-out and sludgy, with guitars and (especially) effects in full, uh, effect will definitely want to wash their earholes with this excellent new space-rock comp. Compiler Mason Jones (whom you might know as the ex-guitarist of SubArachnoid Space, currently in project called Numinous) knows his stuff and has pulled together tracks from a stellar international cast of rockers who like to freak-out, drone-on, and/or toke-up. Here's who's here: Kinski, Circle, Gravitar, Overhang Party, Tarantula Hawk, Up-Tight, Vocokesh, DMBQ, Bardo Pond, Acid Mothers Temple, Yeti, ST-37, Escapade, Rubble, Abunai!, SubArachnoid Space, Numinous, Farflung, Primordial Undermind, Fuzzhead, Speaker/Cranker, and Transpacific! Whew. As you can see, with Mason in charge, of course the Japanese contingent is well-represented.
The tracks on here are mostly live recordings, and, as far as we can tell, all otherwise unreleased (with the exception of the Tarantula Hawk one, which is an edit from their now-out-of-print Live At KFJC cd-r). Pretty much a killer comp, ranging as it does from the groove of Circle to the grind of Gravitar, with some bands doin' stuff closer to stoner rawk, others more on the bliss-drone side of things. Now, I might have tried to put the more rockin' cuts towards the front end of the discs, to avoid disturbing the slumber of those of us who like to doze off listening to the more blissful stuff (or maybe left off one or two cuts) but that's just me. Overall, Hall Of Mirrors is fully droned, stoned, and ET-phoned. Recommended.
By now maybe you have (or like some of us, maybe you haven't) had enough of the South East Asian pop, folk, field recordings from Sublime Frequencies. Courtesy of Robert Millis (Climax Golden Twins cohort and curator of the Leaf Music Drunks Distant Drums cd) Harmika Yab-Yum takes us on an audio journey through underserved territory. Nestled, nay sandwiched between the geographical and cultural giants of China and India, Nepal's greatest fame lies in its hosting the tallest mountain on our fair planet. It's also the only "official Hindu state in the world" according to the CIA Factbook. On Harmika Yab-Yum Millis elegantly weaves together recordings he made (apparently in 1996) of radio broadcasts, street musicians, religious cermonies, and sermons. About half of the tracks in fact are from radio, though no disc jockey banter is included, which -- whether intentional or not -- gives the recordings an even more of a feel of being totally detached from the influence of the occidental world. By and large the greatest influence on the music here is from India. Tabla percussion, flutes, pump organs, sitars, violins and drones, drones, drones make up the bulk of the instrumentation and to the untrained ear, certainly sound like the dulcet tones of Indian music. The disc starts off with a bang with a track taken from the radio which sounds like feral chanting by some crazed lunatic accompanied by drumming. This is followed by an abrupt segue into a street sermon broadcast over a distant sounding bullhorn, flutes and people talking can be heard over the sermon. For the larger part, such abrupt transitions are not the norm on Harmika Yab-Yum and the grainy, modulating songs recorded off of the airwaves blend nicely with the gritty sounds of daily life on the streets from the clanging bells of a pony train passing by to, chanting monks on Krishna day, to a snake charmer with double reed to the crashing of bands, miscellaneous percussion and other noises for a wedding procession. Very nice.
I remember when the Butthole Surfers' Locust Abortion Technician came out, how blown away I was by the album. On top of all their own material, here was this totally weird song which they irreverantly looped over one word that happened to sound like an English vernacular term for female genitalia. Funny the first time through, I always wanted a copy of the original recording which the Surfers lifted that track from because I thought it just kicked ass in its own right. I know you think I'm gonna say that that song is on this collection. Sorry, it's not. But if you loved that song "Kuntz" for what it was (despite Gibby's juvenile chicanery), you'll definitely be excited by the Molam tracks on this disc. Compiled by Mark Gergis (I Remember Syria, Cambodian Cassette Archives, Neung Phak) from a multitude of sources -- LPs, 45s and cassettes -- this collection of Molam comes from a distinct window in Isan, Thailand history. Molam, which comes from the rural areas of Northeastern Thailand and neighboring Laos, was for many years generally charactarized by male and female vocals backed by the khaen (a free-reed mouth organ). Migrating rural Thai and Laotian people to the cities modernized their Molam with electric guitars, bass, drums and keyboards and the music spread like a fad to the urban population. Inevitably, through the ever changing nature of music, and the economically driven producers, the electronic keyboard surpassed the need for a band and the music was more often than not reduced to the standard pop that is ubiquitous throughout Thailand. This then is a time capsule of the glory days of molam gone electric. Fans of Neung Phak will be familiar with the track which begins this collection, as it's also the opening track of Neung Phak's debut. So those of you who thought Mark couldn't tune his bass can hear his alibi playing the original tune off key as is the style. Certainly fans of the Cambodian Rocks albums should take heed here, but will find a collection of tracks that are much more removed from Western rock. Firstly, there are no covers of rock songs, nor are the melodies here even related -- except by chance -- to Western pop. These are all traditional tunes that have merely been arranged with modern electric instrumentation (which isn't to say that you won't here any khaen on these tunes). It is the vocals though that are what really drive these songs, modernized or no. With melodies that seem utterly independent of what the band is playing, the lilting, almost yodelled, singing is unlike that of any other region in the world. Dare I say it's sultry. Oh so very highly recommended!!
Another installment in the absolutely flawless Pop Ambient series. We casually mentioned in our review of the 2004 Pop Ambient comp that we weren't all that keen on techno. A few folks took it a bit too personally so this here review should hopefully smooth some ruffled feathers. It's true, we never liked the mainstream techno that much. It was the mutant strains that really hit the spot for us. But that's the case with pop music as well. And metal. And indie rock. And hell, music in general. That's sort of the point of this list and this store. It's the ferreting out of weird and wonderful subsets of genres that may not initially appeal to us. Finding that one techno record that the black metal folks might dig, or finding that one grindcore records that even indie rockers can't resist. So it is with the Pop Ambient. Gone are most of the beats, and ALL of the four on the floor throb, and most of the techno trappings, and left in their place are a ghostly glimmers, a shimmering trace of a pop song, the musical equivalent of catching something in the corner of your eye. Like condensation, little beads of melody slowly slip earthward, while indistinct melodies drift past like the last vestiges of early morning fog. Subtle and sleepy, dreamy and drowsy, gleaming and glistening, completely mesmerizingly hypnotic. The perfect sounds for warm fires, rainy days, late nights, full moons, thick fogs, lonely evenings, not so lonely evenings, good books, deep sleeps, a lazy afternoons and for drifting into nothingness. Tracks from the Orb, Gas, Ulf Lohmann, Thomas Fehlmann, Klimek, Andrew Thomas, Pass Into Silence, Triola, Popnoname, DJ Koze, and Peter Grummich. The LP is a few tracks shorter than the cd.
We know you love that Cambodian rock. And you know what? We love it too. Of late there seems to be an obsession with it; between the 4 Cambodian Rocks collections, the Cambodian Cassette Archives and Dengue Fever, we've had a pretty good run of it thus far. But now Sublime Frequencies is upping the ante with a collection unlike all those that preceded it. While the Khmer Rouge did a pretty good job of wiping out all the original performers, along with thousands of other innocent people and displacing the population of Cambodia, it couldn't completely wipe out the music. The original cassettes, still floating around are still being played on the radio to this day. Except that they aren't always played in strictly original form. Most stations, with the exception of the state run AM one, have taken to playing re-mixed versions of the songs with overdubbed instrumentation ranging from guitars and drums to synth keyboards in an attempt to keep the music fresh with the younger generations of listeners. This collection includes both the un-mixed originals taped off of the state run AM station and the re-mixed versions from the FM stations. Those of you already well suited with the previously released Cambodian rock collections will certainly get a kick out of several cuts here (some of which are most certainly completely different recordings from the ground up). Much more even than the Khmer Rocks releases, this collection has a great deal more variety of tunes (not just the garagey numbers), including some that feature traditional instruments, or at least traditional sounding. One tune in particular features just vocals and solo electric guitar which could easily be the Cambodian Lightnin' Hopkins. Additionally, Radio Phnom Penh differs greatly from the other discs in the Radio series on Sublime Frequencies in that not only are the songs allowed to play all the way through, in their entirety for the most part, but there's only very brief station ID's and disk jockey talking included.
Fuck! What a mess of a weird fucking album! This is the sixth "Radio" release from Sublime Frequencies and quite possibly the best (for those who can appreciate the most damaged aspects of bizzare station ID's and channel surferyness). People in the United States sometimes don't realize just how loud our country is. We inundate the world with our radio, television and movies, but rarely have a clue as to what's happening elsewhere in the world. The rest of the world does have to listen to us, like it or not. We hold the cultural bully pulpit. So it's always nice to hear our own cultural exports turned inwards upon themselves, and the "Radio" series from Sublime Frequencies allows us to hear from around the world. Radio Sumatra begins with a seriously demented melange of eighties guitar rock pre-empted by evil gremlin voiced disc jockeys, like the voices you hear in your head after you eat an entire box of Captain Crunch in one sitting. Later, chipper voice talents intone over the what sounds like Sumatran black metal and phone callers to another station perform live karaoke on the radio. And this is only 15 minutes in. Towards the end the sounds of Islamic hip hop and primitive techno hold sway. We won't kid you though: there's a lot of super saccharine pop sandwiched in here. We're talking top forty radio... even if it is Sumatran. But this collection will slay you despite that. Or maybe because of that!
The 19 tracks on Streets Of Lhasa were recorded by Zhang Jian, a member of Beijing, China's fm3 arts collective during a visit to Tibet in August 2003. Jian would hire the musicians for an entire day, paying them in cash and food, and record their performances in the relatively quiet surroundings of a city park. Most of the recordings are of either solo performers (singing a cappella, or accompanying themselves with a lute or fiddle) or in small ensembles. Many of the performers are children, often singing with their parents. Particularly cute is the father / son duet (with fiddle accompaniment). In addition to these private performances, Jian also made several recordings of ambient sounds and music on the streets of Lhasa: market sounds, prayer bells, children playing, trains, and a 12 minute track of monks heatedly discussing scripture and apparently clapping to puncuate their arguments, though the clapping sounds almost like a crackling fire. The result is a picture perfect audio post card to a place most of us will likely never visit.
This great comp disappeared quickly right after we first listed it back in December, but now at last it's been repressed and is back in stock again!
How can you argue with a comp of totally obscure, French and Belgian and French Canadian, late sixties / early seventies psychedelic rock? Especially when you most likely haven't heard of a single one of these artists, and the cover features people in bear suits IN space suits hanging out on the moon and the disc art features a band dressed up like psychedelic Indians and the songs are so completely whacked and weird? Well, you can't. Nor should you. Why deny yourself the drugged out damaged beauty contained herein? Eighteen tracks of completely out-there psych rock, rife with all sort of wild and wooly outerspace effects, funky horns, fuzzy lead guitars, hooks galore and sung mostly in French!
The opening track by P.B. + 3 1/2 is a funky soft porn soundtrack (well, sounds like it, the liner notes assure us it is not even though the artist did indeed to porn sountracks) slowly loping bassline and the melody played by a kazoo. Yep, a kazoo. Complete with summery feel-good background vocals and bizarre Perrey And Kingsley sound effects. Apparently P.B moved to L.A. and recorded music for Star Trek: The Next Generation! Track two is just as wacked with a total head nodding groove, the main riff played on a violin and booming Morricone choral style men's choir background vocals, swirling cinematic strings and a wailing Scott Walker-ish vocal, super dramatic and WAY over the top. The third track is a fuzzy, psychedelic girl-group-groove from Sixties French pop idol Stella, a totally guitar heavy workout, with a super Hendrixy 'scuse me.. type riff, kick ass horns and her throaty, over affected vocals, but totally catchy and wonderful. And the whole record continues in the same fashion, Just when you think it couldn't get weirder or cooler, it does. Big time! Partridge Family style Sixties summer pop, dipped in acid and left to fry in the sun, keyboard heavy ? And The Mysterians style repeating grooves dissembled and put together again like some psych rock Frankenstein and on and on and on...We get flooded with comps of 'lost classics', but this one definitely holds up as one of our favorites (and definitely one of the most bizarre). All the tracks were collected by some guy named Satan Belanger, a legendary underground musician and record collector in Quebec. Really funny liner notes too, in both French and English, though we could have used even more info. Highly recommended!
On the cover: the one and only Anthony Braxton. Also: Soft Pink Truth (Drew doin' the "Invisible Jukebox"), Mike Ladd, Gang Gang Dance, Dylan Nyoukis, Toshiya Tsunoda (interviewed by our own Jim Haynes) and more. Including an "Epiphany" about the Firesign Theater. And the usual slew of reviews. Oh, and of especial interest to some of us here, there's a guide to what the Wire calls "Subterranean Metal"! Edwin Pouncey talks about Earth, Corrupted, Sleep, Abruptum, Khanate, Leviathan, Boris, SunnO))), etc. -- lots of our faves. Wow, there's more metally stuff here than the last year's worth of Wire's combined! Although, as opposed to noisy-avant-sludge-drone stuff made by hipster types, there's really not so many actual full-on metal albums discussed in depth. And we wonder if Ulver's Nattens Madrigal would even be there if that band hadn't latter morphed into an electronica act. Still it's a good sign of what we hope might be the Wire's newly expanded coverage of metal, which has been creeping up and up anyway.
To certain ears, to fans of fucked-up avant-garde noisy ridiculousness (like us), the names John Zorn and Yamataka Eye separately but especially together are magical ones. To be perfectly honest, I (Allan) would have to credit the two of them, via Zorn's seminal genre-gargling "jazz" group Naked City for which Eye vocalised, for helping me on the way towards first experiencing some of the really fundamental, now-long-time-fave artists of my personal musical pantheon...(Eye's band) the Boredoms, then the Ruins, and from thence the whole Japanese noise (and psych, and prog) scene... So this disc is for folks like me/you/us. The extreme sax of Zorn, the extreme vocals of Eye, the additional extreme musical imaginings of both of 'em, combined on one crazy disc, the follow-up to their previous Naninani album on Tzadik from about nine years ago...wow, has it been that long? The obi strip on this cd points out that Eye and Zorn have been occasional musical collaborators for about twenty years now, having first met in Japan in 1986! So yeah, good thing we weren't holding our breath for this one. But it had to happen. And it holds up with the first Naninani (though, there's no beating "Bad Hawkwind") and their psuedo-historical disc of cantorial-inspired singing Zohar as well. The tracks here are quite diverse -- the first sounds like hysterical foreign children trapped in some physics experiment, while others are textural/drone experiments or are more overtly sax/jazz oriented freekouts. But even in a blindfold test, after hearing a few tracks fans of the duo should have no trouble guessing who is (ir)responsible for this.
Four lengthy tracks of ambient electronic shimmer. Gorgeous and dreamily exploratory. The first track features Youngs' tentative warble over a haunting theremin like drone, demarcated by a simple thudding rhythm and mellow chiming percussion. Like an Irish folk song performed acapella alongside a super subdued Wolf Eyes or an extra minimal Sunroof!. The rest of the record is mostly instrumental and filled with free form clouds of dreamy psychedelia woven from pealing feedback, ambient electronic chatter, complex shuffling rhythms, all keening and swirling lazily in the still air, very high up and very far out.
