As was promised late last year when she and Thom (Moore of the Moore Brothers) released their Summerland album on Kill Rock Stars, here is her second solo album. Your initial impression might be that Nedelle's intimate, mostly acoustic songs are totally off the cuff -- a few barely reach the two minute mark -- but listen further and you'll discover that they're quite deceptively so. She's cozied them up with lush strings, a little whistlin' (on the sixth song "Our Little Selves") and sweet-sweet vocal harmonies. The highlight is perhaps the most fully developed tune of her repertoire, and it surfaces mid-album. The very lush Rufus Wainwright-esque "Oh No!" is a totally rollicking number, but surprisingly it not at all jarring amid the dreamy slower songs. A definite charmer!
The cold winter nights stuck above the Arctic Circle have become the perfect climate for extended bouts of intoxication for many a Scandinavian. As a result, the capacity for the Icelandic duo Stilluppsteypa to consume alcohol is the stuff of legend. Alcohol has soaked into every fiber of their being; but its manifestation in their music (and their personalities for that matter) is closer to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde allegory, as a raging alcoholic squirms just beneath the surface of a stoic Scandinavian temperment. Of course, where these two personalities come into conflict is where the art of Stilluppsteypa is realized. A schizoid tension runs throughout Stilluppsteypa's impressive catalogue of terminal drones, sputtered rhythms, and atomic fractures; and often this tension is dished out with a smug dollop of black humour and Dadaist absurdity. So, it's hardly unusual to come across Stilluppsteypa celebrating Vikinga Brennivin, the stringent Icelandic alcohol that has undoubtably killed some of their collective brain cells. Yet it was the stoic BJ Nilsen -- the Swedish electron wrangler whose best known for his work as Hazard -- who invited Stilluppsteypa to collaborate on Vikinga Brennivin. Their resultant collaboration is an existentialist allegory in which the three drunkenly stumble out in a Scandinavian winter night and spiral toward the inevitable point in which they blackout. Lest this be construed as a derelict piece of method acting, the craft that Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa brought to Vikinga Brennivin is impeccable, as the extended dronescapes breath with the majesty of distant fog horns and sparkle with the delicate light of countless stars cast down from the black heavens onto the frozen tundra below. Frightening and barren, yet hauntingly compelling, Vikinga Brennivin is an isolationist masterpiece.
We've got a handful of the first edition of Vikinga Brennivin which come housed in a jewel case with beautiful aged-copper inserts (as in actual metal, not copper ink) with white silk-screened printing. There's only 300 of the first edition, and the label has sold out of it! We'll let you know when the second edition will be released sometime in April 2005.
We have sung the praises of many a David Jackman record, including both his solo projects and his epochal drone project Organum; yet, Jackman doesn't make it easy for us to like him. In recent years, he has only released hyper limited edition 7"s and 10"s with a paltry amount of sound on each, and usually with a pretty hefty price tag. Even the cd reissues are a bit frustrating, for instance the Vacant Lights / Rasa Avis was inexplicably released as a double cd when a single disc was more than adequate to house all of the material. Yet, Tocsin -- which is the second collaborative recording between avant-percussionist Z'ev and Organum -- is a much meatier release with almost 50 minutes of soundsculpting. In all likelihood, Z'ev is the one we have to thank for the longer program of Organum's music. The source material for Tocsin came from a single studio session in which Z'ev bowed and scraped the surfaces of an unspecified steel instrument, and Jackman sat behind a piano offering sparse clusters of sound. Afterwards, the two went their separate ways to further process the recordings. Z'ev's material focuses on the sustained metallic klang of that steel instrument; and while the resonances of those scrapes are quite similar to Jackman's quintessential albums like Ikon and Sphyx, his production sensibility places a much greater emphasis upon digital signal processing over Jackman's very dry sound. When it comes to Jackman's take on the material, he unsurprisingly concentrates on his piano clusters, with Z'ev's scrapes relegated to the background.
Alright! A new cd single by Out Hud. This features "OLTL: A Requiem", "OLTL: A Requiem For A Requiem" and "Put It Away, Put It Away, Put It Away, Dad". All three are way more house-dancey than previous releases, way less all out disco-dub. These songs bring the New York style party zone big time. Cool dubbed-out-n-delayed beats. Delicate layers of filtered computer noise over some rockin guitar melodies. WARNING: this cd single will make you wanna stay in the "zone" with Out Hud for a long while... Good thing they have a full length comin' out soon!
SUPER LIMITED!!! Pelican fans snap to attention! Fans of sludgy downtuned dirge do not dawdle. We got a small batch of these limited edition Pelican live DVD's and we will most likely not be able to get more ever again. Four epic tracks of Pelican's gorgeously massive instrumental pummel, videotaped live in 2003 in Chicago, shot from the crowd, a bit dark (dark enough that you barely see the drummer) but it sounds soooo good and if you've never seen Pelican before, it's cool to watch four regular looking dudes conjure up a seriously massive slab of metallic post-rock brutality. It's almost like being right there in the sweaty crowd, ears ringing, head banging! Packaged in a slimline jewelcase with new artwork from Seldon Hunt.
Do you hear that din? There's an evil circus brewing up a storm in the bat cave and its name is Phantom Limbs. Yup, they're back with a new EP on their totally appropriate new label home, Gold Standard Laboratories. Still spewin' the ultra convulso-vocals atop churning thick synth lines and a primal stompin' rhythm section. The Limbs' Random Hymns get even more chaotic on the fourth track. With its chopped up dialogue samples (including some from American Movie), gimp-style vocals and overall aggressive dissonance, "Jackalope Rising" takes the listener into what is perhaps the band's most fucked-up and bizarre territory to date. Pretty darn rad.
Do we have to tell you that Richard Pryor is one of the greatest comedians alive? Taking inspiration from Bill Cosby, mentoring from Woody Allen, etc. Pryor quickly became one of the single most strikingly inspirational comedians of all time. This retrospective gives us two discs of mostly never-before-released stuff that nicely documents his early performances (1966-1974).
Disc one features amazing reel-to-reel sound recordings which render for us his earliest explorations in comedy (thus the "Evolution"). For the most part, they're pg-13-ish storytelling explorations that catch him building the structures of his own comedic form.
Disc two gives us performances that feature the more famously known Pryor style: hyperkinetic, free-form, millions upon millions upon millions of expletives, the sort of delivery Pryor's probably best known for. He talks about real-life situations with which we can all identify. You know, cocaine addiction, tumultuous marriages, killing ones car, heart attacks, setting oneself on fire... This disc also features one of the best parts of Wattstax, his 7 bit monologue! The performances here pre-date his decision to remove the word "nigger" from his monologues (a decision made following a 1979 trip to Kenya).
Now, where, motherfucker, would we be without God damn Richard Pryor? Dare I say, there would be no Eddie Murphy!? No Blazing Saddles (which he co-wrote with Mel Brooks)!! No Sanford and Son!!! And on and on... Overall, this is a great compilation of his early work. And "[He] Ain't Dead Yet Motherfucker!"
I swore we would try to review this record without mentioning it, but what can you do? It's so blatant and obvious and undeniable. This band sounds EXACTLY like Spoon. I mean exactly. Dark and moody, shuffly rhythms with brooding pianos and a voice that is uncanny its similarity to Spoon's Britt Daniel. But to that we say "so what?!?" This record is awesome. And for us at least, who can argue with a new Spoon record, whether it's by Spoon or not. Granted, there -are- differences. The Robbers are much less experimental. way more poppy and accessible. And when they rock they definitely slip into Strokes / Interpol territory, which again is not necessarily a bad thing. There's also a liberal sprinkling of horns which is a nice surprise too. I usually defend bands who have a singer that sounds like another singer (sounding like Ozzy is a common example) because you can't really help how you sing, your voice is your voice for the most part, but when the voice that sounds much like another singer, is then complimented by a band that just happens to sound like that other singer's band, well then you gotta wonder just a little, if the band thinks to themselves "Holy shit, we sound a lot like Spoon." So if you're a stickler for absolute originality, then The Robbers On High Street might be a bit to close to -that- other band. But if you're looking for some dark and intense, catchy and rocking experimental pop, you'd be hard pressed to do better than Tree City. At least until the new Spoon record.
Attention Ruins fans! Attention fans of hyperkinetic bass and drums prog-rock insanity! (Them's one and the same, we're pretty sure.) Here's something for ya, which you may not have already and/or may need again. Previously only available as a French import (and Japanese edition in Japan), Chicago's Skin Graft label have now re-issued this 1998 Ruins album domestically, in a freshly remixed form. And there's two bonus tracks to boot!
Previously we called this "demented", and a "showcase" for their style of "utter-insane-complexicore". We'll stand by those hyperbolic statements today as well. Vrresto and its follow-up Pallaschtom saw the Ruins go to the edge and beyond of acrobatic/athletic musical extremity, undeniably impressive (though, it must be said that we found their scaling back of the spasticity on 2002's Tzomborgha album to be a welcome move). Vrresto was the first proper album recorded by the line-up of founding drummer/mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida and (at the time) new six-string bassist Hisashi Sasaki (who despite the onslaught of Yoshida's octopoid drumming can hardly be said to play second fiddle in the band). Cool to have this back in print, just in time for Ruin's 20th (!!!) anniversary.
For all of you out there who been askin' for children's music, well, They Might Be Giants have once again heeded your call! You might remember their last kids' release, the 2002 album simply titled 'No!' As this title tells, these are alphabet songs... but they're so much more than the traditional "Now I know my abc's, next time won't you sing with me?" song. They start things off by using the alphabet to run through the names of countries, then jump right into letter-related songs about such subjects as animals, music instruments, and food. That's right after years of schoolin' the masses on the wide wide world of pop, the Johns are gettin' even more educational. And they've refined they're quirky songcraft to a textbook-like science -- pun intended, hahaha! Lots of funky beats, bubbly cheezy melodies, and vocoder singing. Of course as with all of their kids music they drop references in here and there that'll probably go right over the heads of the tots and into the ears of their parents (such as Linnell's mention of 'flying v' guitars). This cd includes bonus tracks and cd-rom fun stuff too.
First off, check out the "Creature from the Black Metal Lagoon" on the cover of this disc! That spikey fellow is Enzifer, responsible for "666 strings of electrotorture" in this quartet. Guys with looks like that, along with graveyard photoshoots and bloody, scantily clad women... yeah we're talking black metal here, old school style. But not just some random band of corpsepainted goons, no this has been carefully selected for your enjoyment by one of (possibly) your favorite record labels.
Now, the Southern Lord label is perhaps best known for sludgy doom releases like SUNNO))), Khanate and Boris. But along with the doom they've always had a thing for the Nordic black metal stuff too -- with their own Thorr's Hammer having been kind of a hybrid of the doom and the black. This release, a reissue (with four live bonus tracks) of the 2003 abum by Norwegian black metal cult Urgehal, demonstrates the Lord's black metal bonafides. After all, No Colours put out Urgehal's first two albums. You know it's gotta be a good 'un, and it is. A raging, frosty blast of Satanic metal lust. It's nothing that Darkthrone hasn't done before, but since when was that a criticism of a black metal band? Heck it's a badge of honor. The songs mostly blaze by at fierce clip with enough change-ups to keep it interesting (Urgehal either going fast, or really fast, or sometimes not-so-fast at a Burzum sort of pace), there's no keyboards, and it's got all the eerie atmosphere and metallic hookiness needed for your necro headbanging pleasure. Totally lives up to the Through Thick Fog Till [sic] Death title. By the way, this band includes an ex-member of Kvist (an old, obscure one-album black metal fave of both Allan, Andee and Byram here at AQ) plus folks currently in Crest Of Darkness.
Ahh, Thrill Jockey. Bringing us well behaved musical goodies for over 13 years, Chicago's indie label celebrates their 100th release with this dvd. Conceptualized by label owner, Bettina Richards, Looking For A Thrill asks one question of 112 musicians. The question? What was your defining musical moment of inspiration? Recollections featured include those from Mike Watt, Thurston Moore, Hamid Drake, Bjork, Yo La Tengo, Tortoise, Trans Am, Jon Spencer, Vic Chestnutt, Fred Anderson, Giant Sand, as well as members of... oh just buy that damn thing and watch for yourself! It's a great collection. Great editing by Ian Williams (Battles / Don Caballero / Storm And Stress). Over five hours of mostly interesting rock reminiscence and recollection. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just cut and paste the info into the comments area on the order form, or just email mailorder@aquariusrecords.org. AESOP ROCK "Fast Cars, Danger, Fire And Knives" (Definitive Jax) cd 17.98 AGF / DELAY "Explode" (AGF) cd 15.98 ALBATROSS NOTE "The Dracula E.P." (Trillium Press) 9" 20.00 ALOG "Miniatures" (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98 AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD "Worlds Apart" (Interscope) cd 14.98 AYLER, ALBERT "Live On The Riviera" (ESP-Disk) cd 14.98 BIG BUSINESS "Head For The Shallow" (Hydrahead) cd 14.98 BLACK LEOTARD FRONT "Casual Friday" (DFA) 12" 6.98 BY THE END OF TONIGHT "A Tribute To Tigers" (Temporary Res) cd 14.98 CHARLEBOIS, ROBERT "Avec Louise Forestier" (Unidisc Music) cd 13.98 COLD BLACK HEAT "It's Magnificent, But It Isn't War" (Family Vineyard) cd 14.98 CURRAN, ALVIN "Canti Illuminati" (Fringes Archive) cd 21.00 DAVE GLEASON'S WASTED DAYS "Midnight, California" (Dollar Record Records) lp 11.98 DREAM DEATH "Back From The Dead" (Penance Music) cd 14.98 DROP THE LIME "This Means Forever" (Tigerbeat 6) cd 14.98 ELUVIUM "Talk Amongst The Trees" (Temporary Res) cd 14.98 ERICKSON, ROKY "I Have Always Been Here Before" (Shout! Factory) 2cd 29.00 FAITHFULL, MARIANNE "Before The Poison" (Anti) cd 15.98 FAY, BILL GROUP "Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (Durtro / Jnana) cd 14.98 FIELD MICE, THE "For Keeps" (LTM) cd 17.98 FIELD MICE, THE "Skywriting" (LTM) 2cd 17.98 FIELD MICE, THE "Snowball" (LTM) cd 17.98 GEIST, MORGAN "Unclassics" (Environ) cd 16.98 HALF-HANDED CLOUD "Thy Is A Word + Feet Need Lamps" (Asthmatic Kitty) cd 14.98 HALL OF FAME "Paradise Now" (The Special Registry) cd 14.98 HARMONIC 33 "Music For Film, Television & Radio Volume One" (Warp) cd 16.98 HARPER, ROY "Bullinamingvase" (Science Friction) cd 17.98 HARPER, ROY "Flat Baroque And Berserk" (Science Friction) cd 17.98 HARPER, ROY "Folkjokeopus" (Science Friction) cd 17.98 HECKER, MAXIMILLIAN "Lady Sleep" (Kitty-Yo) cd 16.98 HITCHCOCK, ROBYN "Spooked" (Yep Roc) cd 16.98 HORTICULTURAL COMPASS "The Apparition Of Bees" (Jewelled Antler) cd-r 9.98 IKEDA, RYOJI "Formula" (Forma) cd + dvd 39.00 IMPALED "Death After Life" (Century Media) cd 12.98 IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES "Resurrection: the Return of a King" (Cold Meat Industry) cd 19.98 JUDAS PRIEST "Angel Of Retribution" (Sony) cd/cd + dvd 17.98/24.00 KOHNCKE, JUSTUS "Doppelleben" (Kontakt) cd 16.98 LADD, MIKE "Negrophilia [The Album]" (Thirsty Ear) cd 16.98 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM "Yr City's A Sucker" (DFA) 12" 6.98 LILES, ANDREW "New York Doll" (Infraction) cd 17.98 LIMITED EXPRESS / EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL "Experimental Express Explorer" (Deleted Art) 7" 8.98 M83 "Don't Save Us From The Flames" (Gooom / Mute) cd ep 8.98 MACLEAN, JUAN "I Robot / Less Than Human" (DFA) 10" 6.98 MAGMA "Concert Bobino 1981" (Seventh / AKT) dvd 26.00 MAKOTO, KAWABATA "Inui.3" (VHF) cd 13.98 MATTHEWS, ERIC "Six Kinds Of Passion Looking For An Exit" (451) cd 14.98 MONTAG "Alone, Not Alone" (Gooom / Carpark) cd 14.98 MU "Out Of Breach (Manchester's Revenge)" (Output) cd 16.98 MY CAT IS AN ALIEN "Through The Reflex Of The Rain" (Free Porcupine) cd 14.98 NAGISA NI TE "Dream Sounds" (Jagjaguar) cd 14.98 NEW IDEA SOCIETY "You Are Awake Or Asleep" (Magic Bullet) cd 14.98 OATHEAN "Fading Away Into The Grave Of Nothingness" (The End) cd 11.98 OKLAND, NILS "Bris" (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98 OLD GRANDAD "Hocus Corpus" (Double Down) cd 12.98 PATTON, MIKE / X-ECUTIONERS "General Patton Vs. X-ecutioners" (Ipecac) cd 15.98 PEDESTRIAN "Volume One: Unindian Songs" (Anticon) cd 14.98 PHAZM "Hate At First Seed" (Osmose) cd 11.98 PREKOP, SAM "Who's Your New Professor" (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98 PRIMORDIAL "The Gathering Wilderness" (Metal Blade) cd 15.98 SATWA "s/t" (Time-Lag) cd/lp 15.98/ 17.98 SCREAMING TREES "Clairvoyance" (Hall Of Records) cd 14.98 SHAPE OF DESPAIR "Illusion's Play" (Spikefarm) cd 16.98 SHINING "In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster" (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98 SMEGMA "Rumblings" (Hanson) cd 14.98 SOLE "Live From Rome" (Anticon) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 SOLEX + M.A.E. "In The Fishtank 13" (Konkurrant) cd 11.98 SONS OF OTIS "X" (Small Stone) cd 14.98 SPACE: 1999 "OST" (Silva) cd 16.98 STARZ "Attention Shoppers!" (Ryko) cd 12.98 STARZ "Coliseum Rock" (Ryko) cd 12.98 STARZ "s/t" (Ryko) cd 12.98 STARZ "Violation" (Ryko) cd 12.98 STEREOLAB "Switched On" (Too Pure) cd 13.98 SUBARACHNOID SPACE "The Red Veil" (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 13.98 SUN RA "Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 3 - The Lost Tapes" (ESP-Disk) cd 14.98 TARENTEL "Big Black Square" (Temporary Res) cd 9.98 TARENTEL "Paper White" (Temporary Res) cd 9.98 TEXTURES "Polars" (Listenable) cd 14.98 THIEVERY CORPORATION "The Cosmic Game" (ESL Music) cd 16.98 TODD, MIA DOI "Manzanita" (Plug Research) cd 16.98 TREMBLING BLUE STARS "The Seven Autumn Flowers" (Bar None) cd 15.98 UCHIHASHI, KAZUHISA & TATSUYA YOSHIDA "Improvisations" (Magaibutsu) 2cd 18.98 V/A "Camping" (Bpitch Control) cd 15.98 V/A "Grime 2" (Rephlex) cd/2lp 15.98/17.98 V/A "Sleeping In The Market: Ethiopian Music & Sounds From Amhara" (Latitude) cd 14.98 V/A "Spire: Live In Geneva Cathedral - Saint Pierre" (Touch) 2cd 19.98 V/A "Team Kitty-Yo" (Kitty-Yo) cd 16.98 VANDER, CHRISTIAN "Un Homme... Une Batterie" (Seventh Records) dvd 26.00 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
This went out of print way too fast, not long after we listed it and has finally been re-pressed. Here's what we had to say about it last time:
We were sold on this band before we even heard 'em (thanks AQ pal Drucifer for the recommendation). First off, they're called Velvet Cacoon. That's right C A C O O N. WTF? Not sure if it's just a typo that was never corrected, to maybe save face, or if it means something entirely different that we couldn't possibly understand... Second, they're a super reclusive eco-fascist (huh?) black metal horde from Oregon. Yep, OREGON. And finally they invented, designed and built an instrument they call a dieselharp, a sort of diesel fuel powered pick up driven fuzz-drone-guitar thing. Wow. So before we even threw this on, we were already pretty into it. And thankfully, the music is every bit as cool and weird and grim and haunting as we could've hoped. Massive slabs of blackened fuzz, and we mean FUZZ. Imagine the buzziest fuzziest Burzum riff, smeared and stretched into a mesmerizing black metal blur. The droning dieselharp is the key, turning what could otherwise be some straight up grim black metal, into a blown out, buzzing black drone. The drums and vocals are barely even there, satisfied to lurk under an oppressive cloak of suffocating heaviness and the seemingly endless, relentlessly hypnotic crush. Fans of the buzzy drone-y end of the black metal spectrum will be blown away. And drone freaks will luxuriate in the absolutely gorgeous final twenty minute track, a slow building lowercase shimmer, worthy of Chalk, Coleclough, Hafler Trio and the like.
Managed to get another batch of these back in. Not sure how long they will last or if we'll be able to get more, so if you missed out last time, you got another chance! Don't blow it.
You know you want this. We did the minute we heard about it, and then again the second we laid eyes on it. And you best act fast 'cause these are SUPER LIMITED. Massive triple cd-r documenting VCO's recent US tour. And it's just as good as you would expect. Extensive shimmering primal tribal free drone epics. Take the best parts of NNCK, Sunroof!, Jackie O Motherfuckers and spread them in a thick paste over a sundappled mountaintop and you still don't even come close to how fucking perfect this is. Three hours of some of the most divine skree you will ever here. Hypnotic and mesmerising and breathtaking and the sounds I hope to hear as I drift into the next world. Matthew Bower and Tom Greenwood (Jackie OMF) guest on a few tracks her and there. Packaged in a cool odd sized triple cd DVD-style case and filled with blurry, rose tinted live shots of the band in full bliss out action. And again, VERY VERY LIMITED!
These four gals have been raising a ruckus 'round town for a couple years now. You might recognize two of them as being former members of the short-lived SF synth-wave band Clone as well as 7 Year Bitch. Live, they've had their hot nights and ones less so, but when they're 'on', their shows can be a super sassy time with equal parts sweat and lipgloss. Really, a major part of what makes them cool is also what can be their downfall, and that is their unbridled swagger. 'Cuz of course when you're rockin' the blues you can't be all uptight, but you also can't be so loose that you're downright messy. Now on record, they've successfully captured the feel of one of their fiery, saucy good nights on tape. When taken sans vocals, Von Iva rock out a straight-ahead by the books dance punk sound with their two-note arpeggiated keyboard and basslines. However, add in the ballsy soulful female vocals and it's quite a different animal. They definitely provide the distinct personality to this band. A flamin' cocktail brewed up from an ample shot of blues rock, a dollop of disco, a scoop of new wave and a dash of batcave.
Wow, so well worth the wait! This highly anticipated M. Ward album has finally surfaced, and it's fucking fantastic!! Oooh sorry, shhh, maybe that was much too loud and boisterous an exclamation for such a beautiful work, but hopefully that gives you an ample impression of our enthusiasm for this release!
It was recorded at a number of different studios around the country with a number of different awesome performin' and producin' participants (such as Howe Gelb, Vic Chesnutt, John Parish, Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, and The Old Joe Clarks), and it traverses as much of the mood and folk music spectrums as those of the geographic and personnel.
The first impression that struck us was that Transistor Radio sounds as though Mr. Ward has brought his songbook a lot closer to that of Ms Jolie Holland (or vice versa... expect much more cross-pollination between the fan camps of both artists). The recordings have that brittle old tyme-y feel but the vocal performances are overflowing with heartfelt gusto. The addition of Ms Lewis' vocals on songs such as "Big Boat") do much to reinforce this sonic kinship. Also materializing in a few of the songs is a fevered twang akin to Howe Gelb, Giant Sand or Calexico which makes sense when you find out that some of these songs were recorded at Wavelab Studios in Arizona (where those artists all record). Warm, earthy, haunting and sooo damn gorgeous! Definitely an album for sharing! Very very recommended!
We had been hearing about this band for ages, and our mail order customer Greg just happens to play guitar in the band and was kind enough to send us cd-r's in the past so we were super psyched to finally get their first actual official cd release, and we were equally psyched when we realized what an absolute monster of a record it was!
Ultra dense, super heavy and relentless Dazzling Killmen / Meshuggah / Voi Vod style tech-post-rock/metal weirdness. Complex and convoluted song structures assembled from jagged metal riffs, crazy drumming and weird atonal guitar freak outs, all woven together into a completely kick ass, impossibly labrynthine metallic math rock headfuck. Occasionally, the action lets up, allowing glimpses into some alien musical world behind the curtain, made up of almost mosh-worthy half time breakdowns, shouted stop start stutters, pretty melodic interludes, blasts of ADD Melt Banana-ish chaos and shimmery droned out space rock. But always returning to Wetnurse's brainmelting, spinecracking metallic calculus core. And then there's the vocals. Bizarre and beautiful (sort of), veering from grunted death metal howls to gutteral Pantera-ish hardcore shouts to shrieked almost-goofy demon-like warbles, usually in the same song! Woah. Definitely heavy enough and weird enough to be a new favorite! Guest vocals by Mike Olenader (ex-BURNT BY THE SUN), and recorded by the legendary MARTIN BISI!
On the cover (and what a great photo!): MF Doom aka Madvillian aka Viktor Vaughn aka King Geedorah. Also, inside: this week's AQ Record Of The Week honoree M. Ward, along with Colin Potter, Bill Fay, James Tenney, Wally Shoup, and a look back at 25 years of Hijokaidan noise mayhem! Plus writing by Michael Gira and an Invisible Jukebox with Ken Vandermark...and news from Berlin, tons of reviews, letters about metal...all the usual tidbits we expect from a new issue of The Wire.
For those of you for whom a 13-cd box set ain't enough, here's a previously unreleased album now on cd by everyone's favorite freaky '70s communal acid-rock ensemble, the infamous Ya Ho Wha 13 lead by Ya Ho Wah aka Father Yod (long since deceased in a Hawaiian hang gliding accident, God rest his beard)! Recorded in a warehouse in Marin County just north of San Francisco in 1975, the cassette tape now found on this cd somehow survived for 30 years before recently being discovered and released (licensed from The Source Foundation) so that now you can hear Yod, Sunflower, Octavius, Pythias and Djin get down with some wild garagey psych-rock religion. It's taken us some time to absorb this, and review it... after all, it's not every day one listens to an "Operetta of Sun Water Air Earth and YOU!" as it says here.
Could the first track possibly be a prequel to "Anarchy In the UK"? Sounds kinda like it at first, all slowed-down and damaged, with some weird-ass vocals... This is some shambolic, spontaneous, lo-fi stuff indeed, that all of today's 'new weird' psychsters couldn't match no matter what sorta substances they stuff in their bongs. At its demented best, this record reminds us a bit of Michael Yonkers! The energy level wavers and wanders throughout this recording, but the group kicks out a fair amount of righteous raving mayhem amidst their more mellow jamming. And can we mention the wonderful whistling found in track six? Ya Ho Wha whistling. Sweet. It's all very loose and improvised, with a lotta detours and derailments, never all that 'together' even though who or what could be more 'together' than this cultish commune? Few deals are more real than this. Fans of Yod and his flock will happily accept this, and try to find a way to fit in into the God and Hair box as disc 14.
Features enthused liner notes by one who was there, Djin Yhw 64.
