Everybody went nuts for that recently reviewed Unicorn cd-r and rightfully so. Easily one of the most beautiful ambient drone records in recent memory. So we figured we ought to pick up this split that was released recently as well. 2673 are a mysterious outfit, not just in name, but in sound as well. Their (or his?) three tracks are ultra simple explorations of sine waves and white noise. Two tracks of simple tones, barely audible, that subtly shift over the course of each piece. The other track is a caustic burst of jagged crumbling old fashioned NOISE. Harsh and brutal and speaker shreddingly loud. Unicorn are a little less tranquil here, but no less satisfying. Ultra minimal, expansive drones, constructed from fuzzed out melodies that sound like they could have been wrenched from an electric guitar, but are transformed into lovely muted swirls of distorted loveliness. The first and the last track are creepy and strangely harrowing, a threatening buzz beneath warm washes of distant keening high end, alien vocal melodies and rhythmic pulses of analogue fuzz. The three tracks between are barely there rumbles, thick drones stretched thin, a wispy sonic murmur, traces and barely visible outlines of songs faded and forgotten. So so nice.
Hey there Album Leaf fans! This is a domestic reissue of his glistening 2003 ep that was previously released in Spain. The big whoop about this particular release though is that there's twice as many tracks as there were on the original... that makes for a 10-track EP! The five bonus cuts are live recordings from the tour they did with Sigur Ros (one is from Portugal and the other four are from Atlanta), but there really isn't that much difference between the studio recorded tracks and the live ones. It's a pretty seamless shift from the fourth to the fifth song -- which simply makes for a smooth listen. His blissed out electronic pop sounds as dreamy and delicate as ever.
We've carried a 7" by this one man band (Mr. Alex Stimmel formerly of Court & Spark) for about a year, and we've been wonderin' when he was gonna grace our ears with more 'Hymns. Well, that time is now. Trowel And Era is his debut full length filled with music quite fitting for overcast (but not gloomy!), laidback afternoons. It's considerably more polished and expansive than the pair of intimate, low-key songs on the introductory single.
Electric guitars slink like a cat stretching its limbs after stirring from a nap. An assortment of other stringed instruments are delicately plucked and strummed. The inclusion of soft glockenspiel, flute, kalimba, and autoharp glisten up the impressive psych-folk proceedings. The second song actually brought to mind Pink Floyd at a Ren Faire (particularly in the vocal department), and as the album progresses those visions get even more vividly so.
Psst, the song "The Marigold" from the above mentioned 7"s b-side makes a reappearance here.
This is the kind of exuberant, indie pop, composed mishmash formerly only found spouting most gushingly from the likes of the Elephant 6 Collective. In the last couple of years younger upstarts have blossomed, predominantly from Canada, such as Hidden Cameras, P:Ano, Arcade Fire et al. It's music that's certainly got its roots in indie pop characterised by a vocal combination of yelped group sing-a-long, melodramatic male crooning and kiddie-style sing-song, playfully peculiar instrumentation, and drawing from a broad array of divergent inspirations (as far as band influences go, Flaming Lips and Olivia Tremor Control immediately come to mind). Disregard the country mentioned in their name, Architecture In Helsinki are from Australia and they jump gleefully from ramshackle hand clappers to sweet hopscotch sockhoppers to funky groovy finger snappers and back again. Listening to In Case We Die is sorta like playin' a game of hide and seek one sunshine-y afternoon in the park with a bunch of your buddies (which just happens to include the girl or boy you've had a secret crush on) -- running, tumbling and spinning around like there's no tomorrow. You think you've got 'em and right when you do they duck out of view only to pop up elsewhere else just outta reach. This album bubbles over with the goodest of giddy good feelings.
The title of this disc should clue you in about what you're getting here from this relatively obscure '60s British band, known today mainly for its revolving door membership that gave 'em connections to the Marmalade, The Nice and Atomic Rooster. There's fifteen songs here, recorded for the Decca label 'round the years indicated, mostly mostly tracks from unissued singles and a few that did actually make it out (weirdly, a lot of the best tunes on here are the previously unreleased ones!). At their best, the Attack indeed attack with some excellent freakbeat -- psych with a hard edge, distorted and nicely fuzzed-out, with Kinks style proto-metal licks. At their worst, some of this is a bit on the generic side, trying for a hit. But there's something here for every lover of the '60s psych explosion, touching on twee, faux-Eastern, and the aformentioned heavier stuff. And some of the lyrics (like "Strange House") are so naively trippy they're quite amusing.
As mentioned, The Attack featured in their ranks both former and future members of Marmelade and The Nice, but I'd heard of this band only 'cause they eventually turned into Five Day Week Straw People and thence Andromeda who then gave up guitarist John DuCann to Atomic Rooster...from which he eventually split to form Hard Stuff. Now, none of those bands have we ever listed or reviewed reissues of...but I guess we should. Atomic Rooster's Death Walks Behind You is a definite classic. And I love the two Hard Stuff albums, which we sometimes have on cd, but they're never reliably in stock. So, this we're listing for two sorts of folks: the ones who are into '60s psych and are familiar with of all the bands mentioned above and were waiting for The Attack tracks to someday appear on cd (here you go!). The other sort of person we're listing this for is someone who's happy to check out some obscure '60 UK hard psych reissue they're never heard of before just 'cause we say it's pretty cool (here you go, too!). The Attack IS pretty cool, at least about 50 percent of it anyway.
Sorry to say, another disappointing album from the duo responsible for so many exceptional electronic records throughout the '90s. Incunabula? Chiastic Slide? AE5? Remember those records? All absolutely brilliant. Well, the brand new eponymous album from Autechre is not much like those albums and is sort of dull dull dull: a few half assed attempts at the melodies that once seemed second nature, and drum programming that sounds more like they're trying out a whole new set of drum kicks, snares, and time-stretched fizzes with little in the way of ecstatic complexity or groove-oriented dynamism. Autechre should have taken Aphex Twin's lead, who instead of treading musical water has fallen back on the sounds that bring him joy, the old school acid breaks of his ten EP Analord series.
Not long after we reviewed the recent collaboration between dark ambient drone legends, Nordvargr and Drakh (who started out as partners in the legendary black industrial drone outfit MZ412), we received an email from Drakh, thanking us for the review, and letting us know about his main project Beyond Sensory Experience. What a weird coincidence. Some of us around here were already huge fans of BSE, but had no idea who was behind it. Although sonically it makes perfect sense. Beyond Sensory Experience is an exploration into bleak sonic darkness, vast expanses of suffocating drones and desiccated melodies, haunting disembodied voices and ghostly glimpses into the dark soul. Korrelations is a remix record of sorts. Four original tracks, seven re-interpretations. One from ex-partner Nordvargr, the rest from like minded isolationists Alexxx, Doshaka, P3, Zdan and Alko. While occasionally the new versions introduce Muslimgauze-like tribal percussion, traditional drum kit and electric guitars, the bulk of the record is dark and dreary and rumblingly minimal. Muted pulses underscore streaks of black and grey, distant throbs beat out funereal rhythms beneath huge swaths of thick fuzzy drone, all flecked with bizarre sonic bits of lost dialogue, cracked and creaking flutters, and a completely claustrophobic and creepy ambience.
Morr Music continue their singular vision of keepin' you as relaxed and unriled as possible. Indeed, this German label have amassed quite a stable of like-minded dreamy indie pop-tronica artists, and here's the latest addition to their family. It's F.S. Blumm's Zweite Meer album. Psst, for those keeping score, it's actually his second release on Morr. His first was 2001's Mondekuchen, notably the first acoustic album released on that label. Anyways, his muted music immediately settles right in by the hearth with some ultra soft prettiness composed from a blend of acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, melodica, accordion, harmonium, french horn and more. Zweite Meer also snuggles in cozily next to the music by The Album Leaf. Just give this a back-to-back listen with A.L.'s recently reissued Seal Beach EP. So lovely!
As The Books third full length begins it immediately offers a darker, more somber atmosphere than its two quirky, playful predecessors. The first track drifts along with a seeming frailness as though there's barely enough energy to raise a finger to a guitar string. Single notes are struck and left to hang in the air, and the already brittle spoken-sung vocals strain to reach the audible level. From there things get a little more edgy and unstable with layers of processed vocals and insistent clickety-tappity typewriter-esque rhythms, but then it all promptly subside into a more typical post-rock infused pop breeziness for the very-Pinback-ish third song "Smells Like Content". The rest of the album continues in this slow, hazy contemplativeness with occasional outbursts of rounded propulsion. Actually, Lost And Safe sounds much like something you might imagine those Bedhead brothers Matt & Bubba Kadane composing for a road movie soundtrack (if you take their film score for the documentary Hellhouse as a jumping off point). Would probably make for a fine late night of thinking, driving album... that is if your vehicle was a quiet, dimly lit room.
Psychedelic Pig has had a great track record of uncovering wonderful and rare recordings of avant-esoterica. The first PP reissue was the Metgumbnerbone album which found The New Blockaders' Richard Rupenus working with a bunch of occultishly minded individuals for a fantasticly creepy ritual music for found percussion and Tibetan horns. Then, there was the unreleased material from the idiot-savant-garde ensemble Die Todliche Doris; but now, they've chosen to dig up this album from the Dadaist realm of the Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa. It's unclear who Brigitte is but supposedly she had worked with H.N.A.S. at sometime, and the Hansen Experience does feature the H.N.A.S.' mainstay Achim P. Li Khan. Let's just say that if you like H.N.A.S. then you'll love this album, as it sounds very similar to The Book Of Dingenskirchen and Kuttel Im Frost with lots of asynchonous tape loops whirling sickly in elliptical patterns, prog-rock basslines, fumbled drum-kit workouts, and a ubiquitous delay pedal that casts every sound in the pedestrial, Experimental 101 atmosphere of ECHO, Echo, echo, e-c-h-o, ECHO, Echo, echo, e-c-h-o, etc. If you're simply curious about how Surrealism and Dadaism can be applied to sound, look to Nurse With Wound and irr. app. (ext.); otherwise this is mostly for adventurous listeners and H.N.A.S. fans / completists.
Definitely one of the best band names ever, this Australian group channels much of the same sonic spirituality as the No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, cobbling together four lengthy tracks of transcendent free folk, avant rock clatter. Creepy and sun dappled, like a furtive glimpse past the drawn shades in the window of the old creepy house on the hill, offering up the briefest peeks into past lives, creaking doors, distant footsteps, a rusty music box, all set to mysterious otherworldly musicks, nonsensical vocals coupled with detuned guitars, tiny xylophone melodies arranged haphazardly between shuffled snare drums and woozy acoustic guitars. Druggy and drowsy and dreamy, a stumbling musical meander through free folk, modern minimalism, DIY noise, and drunken indie jangle. SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
Both James Burton and Ralph Mooney were two legendary sidemen who helped shape the Bakersfield sound in the 60's (Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, et al). Burton with his telecaster (along with dobro) and his tenure as a rockabilly guitarist and Mooney with his steel guitar together formed a unique sound, now indelibly associated with the slick sound of Hollywood's country session musicians and, by extension, commercials and television in general. Producer Rick Nelson (who Burton had worked with in his rockabilly days) convinced the two to record instrumental versions of the country hits of the period. Among the 12 included here are such classics as Spanish Eyes, Your Cheatin' Heart, Columbus Stockade Blues along with two originals by Mooney and Burton.
This went out of print not long after we first listed it in October of '04. And it's still out of print. But one of our suppliers somehow found 15 copies. Which we promptly snatched up. So... our previous review gets a one-time-only-rerun:
Vinyl Only. Limited. 750 copies. Circle. Did you get that? Circle. Vinyl Only. Limited. 750 copies. And we only have 15. That said, here follows a possibly superfluous review... Anyone who liked the last cd we listed by our Finnish friends Circle, Forest, ought to also like this live recording. It's all new material -- two side-long cuts, "Dragon" and "Empire" -- but they are definitely in the hippified, semi-acoustic jamming vein of Forest, all dark and psychedelic and Can-like. Both tracks are epics, with peaks and valleys, the second side eventually building up into a guitar riff-repetition thing that's classic Circle indeed. Frickin' gorgeous and hypnotic.
Wonderful! Clarinet Thing is the collaborative project starring five formidable pillars of the SF jazz community -- Beth Custer, Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, Peter Josheff and Ralph Carney. Yes, as you might've guessed, they all play a variety of clarinets masterfully, and their incredibly expressive performances are captured beautifully on these live recordings. So warm and crisp, you wouldn't know they were performing in a 'live' setting until the audience voices their appreciative applause at the end. The seventeen tracks on Agony Pipes And Misery Sticks document the group's fifteen years of reeded sister'n'brotherhood, and what a consistent delightful document it is!
Jonathan Colecough sure does like his collaborations! (And so do we.) We were first transfixed by his luminous dronescaping on the masterful Sumac album (currently unavailable) which paired his talents with Andrew Chalk who later went on to found the equally epochal drone ensemble Mirror. Since then, Coleclough has worked with Colin Potter on numerous ventures, Bass Communion, Tim Hill, and now with Japanese improviser Kuwayama Kiyoharu (aka Lethe). Kiyoharu is best known for his duets with violinist Kijima Rina in which the two respond to the reverberations and environmental ambience of warehouse spaces, highway underpasses, and other industrial zones. As Lethe, Kiyoharu's work concentrates more on the spatialization of actionist gestures in which he scrapes, shuffles, and bristles found objects in various locations and proximations to his microphones. Together, their work operates on a fairly simple trajectory as Coleclough sets forth an underlying drone upon which Kuwayama overlays his clamourous gestures. Starting off with a lulling isolationist tone, Coleclough's subtle shifts settle upon a lumbering sea of low frequencies; Kuwayama quietly introduces his scrabblings. Together, they add more and more sounds upon each other, as Coleclough offers some ring modulated electric frequencies not unlike Klaus Schulze's classic '70s desolation and as Kuwayama increases the density of his aggregate sounds. This builds up to a dramatic climax of clanging metals against concrete floors and psychoacoustically agitated drones that come to an abrupt halt. Afterwards, Coleclough sends the rest of the piece along a steady fluctuation of twin tones, and Kuwayama presents a delicate foray of acoustic clicks. It all makes for a wonderful album!
Just what the title sez! This is The Country Teasers in all their live, super what-the-fuck, devil-may-care rawk splendour compiled from their 1999-2004 shows. Like a bunch of hillbillies (Scottish ones, no less!) who've gotten absolutely trashed out in their garage. In the past, we've compared 'em to a bastard child of garage rock and postpunk granddaddies Billy Childish and Mark E. Smith, and that still holds very true. A noisy, angular, stumbling, slurring mess, but an entertaining (and occasionally hilarious) one! Just after someone hollers "YOU SUCK!", they launch into a relatively subdued cover of Randy Newman's "Short People". Uh oh. They also throttle songs by Butthole Surfers, New Order, and Brainbombs. Be forewarned, if you're brave enough to listen to this album, you may find the drawer of your cd player littered with cigarette butts and empty lager cans.
Yup, things tend to come around full circle, don't they? Cristina and her then husband Michael Zilka conspired to cash in on the whole disco craze of the late '70s but with a biting sense of sarcasm and a smarty-pants arrogance. With Zilka founding the now legendary Ze Records and Cristina releasing the 'artfully dumb' single "Disco Clone" in 1978, the two certainly started out on the right foot. Jump forward some twenty-five years later with a post-punk / avant-disco revival exploding thanks to the likes of the LCD Soundsystem, the Rapture, and the rest of the DFA line-up, and Cristina and her now ex-husband Michael Zilka have conspired to cash in once again with the reissue of her first two albums. Doll In The Box was originally an eponymous LP on Ze, released back in 1980 and was produced by August Darnell (better known as the ringleader of Kid Creole and the Coconuts). Perhaps we're too familiar with the more-clever-than-thou sensibility of LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge" that ripples throughout the entire post-disco retread, but Cristina's Doll In The Box sounds like a pretty straight forward disco album. Mind you, it's a mighty fine disco album with the rhythmic mono-pulse augmented by minimalist barrio swings, goof-ball covers (e.g. "Drive My Car" by The Beatles with Cristina affecting the air-headed breathiness of Marilyn Monroe), and lots of big, brash, baroque string section frilliness.
Wow, we've got not one, but two new releases featuring Ms Beth Custer! Not only do we have her wonderful Clarinet Thing collaboration with Sheldon Brown, Ralph Carney, Ben Goldberg and Peter Josheff, but also this politically charged cd of her latest ensemble work with Carney and Goldberg (this time handling horn duty), the amazingly dextrous keyboardist Graham Connah, and Charming Hostess' Marika Hughes on cello, among others. Custer might be based here in SF but she's a music nomad through and through, covering an astounding expanse of styles from Latin jazz to ambient to country to trip hop and beyond (both as a solo artists and in groups such as the abovementioned Clarinet Thing, Club Foot Orchestra, Eighty Mile Beach, and Trance Mission) on an equally broad array of instruments. She simply can't/won't be pinned down. Respect As A Religion is no exception. It frolicks, grooves, wrestles, and enchants.
For those unfamiliar with Dhamaal SF (now abbreviated from Dhamaal Soundsystem), they're a Bay Area consortium of musicians and djs devoted to creating and promoting club music with a strong focus on Southeast Asian influences. Their lushly textured tracks are filled with sputtery frenetic breakbeats and are anchored by some deeeep dark dubby bass that's sure to stir much movin' and groovin'. This cd-r is their latest release which includes the album version of their track "Twilight Creeper" from their self-titled debut released last year ('twas definitely one of the highlights), as well as two new tracks and a remix of another album track "Z Motion". With guests Asian Dub Foundation's Dr. Das and Shiva Soundsystem!
Originally issued as a super limited -- 500 copies -- LP only pressing, the debut 2001 release from AQ (and everyone else's) Swedish retro psych pop faves Dungen has at last been reissued on compact disc in an expanded form by Subliminal Sounds! Containing only three very long tracks, each broken into 4-6 parts, their self-titled album might seem a bit of a disappointment to those who got turned on to them through their very popular third album Ta Det Lugnt, with its shorter, catchy pop and hard rock tunes. But we encourage you to give this disc a closer listen anyhow, as it's quickly grown on us. Each of the three tracks here meander in and out of song in an LSD trip-like whirl of whimsy. During one long improvised section you could swear you'd just plopped on Pink Floyd's Ummagumma to listen to "A Group Of Small Furry Animals..." (complete with animal sounds), at another moment the group sound like they're playing bossanovas at a 4 star hotel lounge (probably the low point on the record, it also lasts only briefly), at another point they're striking up a funky sitar led jam. Near the end of the second track the band all but drops out, leaving a reverb laden piano tinkling minor key Satie-esque melodies with sighing accompaniment from electric guitar. Super lovely. As alluded to above, we know that Dungen's Gustav Ejstes added material to the original LP tracks to fill out this cd reish, and he certainly made the old and new tracks flow together seamlessly. Those of you have have the second Dungen album Stadsvandringar will also experience a wee bit of deja vu, as some themes here were reprised for that album (which, Dungen fans who don't have that disc will be happy to hear is also slated for reissue this year sometime).
Finally in stock on vinyl! But like most of these things, probably not for long... We listed the cd version a while back, alongside another (also live) Earth cd, 070796LIVE. Here's a precis of what we had to say about Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword then:
There are only two tracks here, both live, and you might have one of them already since it also appears on that 070796LIVE disc. Thankfully though, the track that's exclusive to this record is a doozy -- an hour long! Album-length in itself, a sprawling doom dirge, recorded live in 2002. So while this is a NEW record, it's not an especially recent recording. But what the hell. We'll take our Earth where we can get it. The first track, the one that is duplicated on the Live cd, is a fourteen minute, solo guitar buzz / dirge / scrape that sounds really damaged, stumbling and clumsy, and definitely messed up. The hour-long second track features drummer Adrienne Davies, who seems to be a permanent member of Earth now, and whose spare, hard hitting style perfectly compliments Carlson's new riffier songwriting. Gone are the glacial fuzzy dirges that inspired Sunn 0))) to become Earth 2 (too) and in their place, is a massive fuzzed out riffy doom metal / post rock groove, super repetitive and totally hypnotic. Much more reminiscent of Earth's under-rated, more song-oriented final Sub Pop album Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons. Definitely still doomy and drone-y and drug-addled and head nodding, but dare we say, more rocking!
Now, since this is a single LP and not a double, we're pretty sure that the hour-long track from the cd version must have been edited down to fit on here! But we haven't cracked one open yet to find out. And since most collector-types buying this won't be opening theirs either, we're not gonna bother. Collectors might also be curious to know that the first pressing of black vinyl was limited to 750 copies, but the ones we have might be a second pressing, dunno if they're limited. Well of course they are, but does it matter?
These Greek guys just aren't happy about being a part of the human race. The grim, blasting, uber-distorto black metal musick they make is evidence of that, without one even needing to read the lyrics to such songs as "Pitiless Paranormal Reek" and "Humanitarianism". Pure nihilistic poetry. And even if you, like me, like being human, we all sometimes feel a little bit of what these guys feel, right? Anyway, we're happy they feel the way they do if only 'cause of the great music that they make as a result. If you like the droning distortion of such great acts as Burzum, Weakling, and Eikenskaden you'll want to experience End for sure. But, their metal has moments of quiet, too, with good use of synth and acoustic guitar and even what must be field recordings or at least pseudo field recordings (from the forest, of the sky?). RecommENDed. Oh, and we also must applaud End's record label for the following statement: "NOTICE ISO666 Releases support CD-R copying. We encourage anyone that cant afford to buy our releases to burn a copy from a friend. Let the music be spread. We are against to all labels that lock their releases to prevent copying."
We've gotta admit it, due to this comprehensive double cd collection of songs by the legendary Roky Erickson, those of us that weren't already are now newly devout fans of his work. Sure, we always liked his hits with '60s Texas psych pioneers the 13th Floor Elevators, of course, but god DAMN. Wow. This collection touches on the best of the 13th Floor Elevators while moreso elaborating on the multitude of music Roky created afterward, solo and with his band The Aliens (among others). Of course we knew that "You're Gonna Miss Me" was a stone classic of slightly-psycho garage-psych, and that 'chooga-chooga' electric jug sound (the 13th Floor Elevators' trademark) has also never failed to fascinate. But somehow we'd never investigated much further, thinking that perhaps the sad saga of Erickson's life (a psychedelic drug-damaged downward spiral) might be more interesting than his music. How wrong we were... disc two here is all post-1980 and a lot of it is brilliant. And of course totally weird.
Maybe you know the story of how, after the inevitable break-up of the LSD-fueled Elevators, Roky was busted for pot in 1969 and, given the choice between spending time in jail or in a mental institution, he chose the latter, claiming insanity. Doing so, however, only led him to suffer through painful shock-therapy and liquid thorazine treatments, rendering him more frail and emotionally damaged than before his admittance. Years after this "therapy", while living in a housing project in Austin, Erickson was busted for mail fraud. He had been stealing his neighbors' mail, taping it up on his apartment walls, unopened. So, you get the gist that the fellow's mental state is precarious at best, right? Add his obsession with schlocky horror films and you get songs like "I Think Up Demons" and his band being called Bleib Alien (bleib, an anagram for Bible).
So, disc one (22 tracks) starts off with a bunch of his '60s singles with The Spades and the 13th Floor Elevators, before moving on to the first of several "comebacks" in the mid-'70s. The songs that followed his institutionalization were either blissful country-type psych tunes or outer-space paranoia-laced ragers. "Starry Eyes" is one of our favorites. A beautiful, earnest, heart-felt melody and that lends loveliness to his throat-scratched lyricism. And then there's "Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play." Not really sure how he got his guitar to sound like that, but it's pretty amazing. Searing and raging with electricity. Really, there are so many amazing tracks on the first disc. Listening to 'em all, we were half-expecting the second disc to pale in comparison. BUT NO. It's totally jammin with his later-era songs, 21 of 'em. One (new) fave of ours here is the doomy "Bloody Hammer" from 1981 which totally makes us understand how that Swedish band Witchcraft was influnced by Erickson just as much as by Pentagram -- it sounds so much like it coulda been on Witchcraft's album! But even as late as '95 Erikson was releasing solid material in his inimitable style. With the same effectiveness in songwriting capability as later-era Johnny Cash, Erickson offers us "True Love Cast Out All Evil" (from 1988) among others.
Yup, this anthology is some essential stuff all right. And it's nicely packaged with liner notes that give a pretty good biographical picture of Erickson and detail the music and its players. You gotta check out the incredible assortment of photos too!
Animated, yes. Suspended, no -- except for the listener's disbelief, perhaps. Sheer carnivalesque carnage here, folks, just like you expect from these guys. After the relatively calm, droned-out ambience of their epic Delerium Cordia album from last year, for this release Fantomas now take us back to the Naked City/Melt-Banana inspired short sharp shock style they delivered on their self-titled debut in '99. There's 30 (!!!) tracks here, each one a violently freaked out, spastic collision of metal, electronics, cartoon music and avant-garde composition that likey adds another unexpected sonic ingredient to the mix. Utterly dizzying and complex, executed by pros. Seriously, you couldn't think of four guys more well-suited to the task: Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo, Buzz Osbourne and Trevor Dunn (past and present members of such notable noise-makers as Mr. Bungle, Melvins, Slayer, and Faith No More, as we're sure you're aware). I mean, they could have added John Zorn or Eye Yamataka or Brian Chippendale to the line-up but it would hardly be necessary, these four already have this stuff DOWN. And the brief Osbourne/Patton vocal duet in track ten is a special thrill. We're at a loss to provide much more in the way of description, it's something you just need to experience for yourself, if you're up for it. Definitely if you're into the genre of music that is ALL genres rolled into one, the Attention Defecit Disorder frenzies of Suspended Animation will provide utmost entertainment. And for the moment, we have the version of this that, for some reason we don't know but won't question, comes in limited-edition packaging incorporating a spiral-bound April 2004 calendar designed and illustrated by hip Japanese artist Yoshitmo Nara. Pretty cool! Too bad April is just about over. But it's not like you were gonna use it as a dayplanner anyway, just admire it for the art.
Whoa Fog, we almost mistook your latest full length for a Beck album! Mind you, not any that Mr. Hansen's released to date, but sorta like one that he might make in an alternate universe. And with regards to the album's title, we wanna let you know that we haven't really registered much of a freakout here. If there were any, they must've been deeply internalized. No, this is slouchy, boyish, shufflin' about. They've always had indie rock leanings, but 10th Avenue Freakout pushes the farthest in that direction to date. Still very eclectic though, and much more cohesive than their previous release, the meandering Hummer EP.
If you picked up last year's All the Leaves Are Gone album by folk singer Josephine Foster -- whose vocal stylings have caused us to dub her the Shirley Collins of Chicago -- you heard her with a nicely weird-making psychedelic rock backing band, The Supposed. Now she's back sans band, doing solo intimate acoustic folk numbers that hew even closer to the British folk tradition that's an obvious influence (Shirley Collins, if you weren't sure, is a '60s UK folk singer of reknown, whose tremblingly pure voice rescued rustic ballads from the mists of the past on her many LPs). The mists of the past hang heavily over Foster's entirely self-penned tunes too. Not just the Brit-folk but also oldtimey down-home blues/gospel too. This disc consists of fourteen tracks of pretty, pastoral, "cosmic madrigals" sung in her high, wavering, angelic voice, self-accompanied on guitar, kazoo, harp, bells, sitar, tambourine, tin whistle, wooden spoons and "black cat" (?) amongst other instrumentation. Willowy, melancholic, melodic... certainly something that anyone who has got a "contemporary indie acid-folk" section going in their music collection is probably gonna want! File with your Banharts and your Six Organs and your Espers and your Skygreen Leopards...
But should we feel band reviewing this since we haven't yet got 'round to listing a bunch of the Shirley Collins reissues that we also recently got in stock?
Early last year Mr. Frillici dropped off a disc for us to check out. We asked him to bring in a batch. We haven't seen or heard from him since then... until now. Here is the result of what apparently has been six years spent crafting, fine-tuning and fleshing out each song. The first couple of songs twinkle and sway gently along the dreamy lines of Dean Wareham and his band Luna. It'd be darn dandy if the whole album simply continued along that path, but suddenly at the third song he shifts dramatically taking us into some Beck-ish horn-laden funkiness. Then we noticed that there are nineteen songs on this album (!), and we anticipated that Frillici might have much more in store for us... and we were right! He fit in some mellow downtempo shufflin', a rockin' guitar noodly rave up to boot, an interstellar Flaming Lips-esque jaunt, some very very Brian Wilson-y grand pop, and some quirky King Missile style storytelling about a fella who ate his own finger (and that's only at the halfway point). An impressive debut filled with a startling array of pop adventures.
Ghost and Drag City bring us this cd + dvd set, a quite fine, fan-o-centric release that will definitely excite the many folks devoted to these modern masters of Japanese psych! Indeed, one customer of ours, Brent from Chattanooga, already chimed in with a review (to save us some time and trouble he says), which goes something like this: "OK, first things first, for all of you Ghost freaks out there, there's no reason you will need to even read this review. Just order it now, cause it's great, it's songs that're not on anything else you've got, and it's, well, it's Ghost. One hour of folked-up improv music, from their early days, say late 80's. Plus not to mention the two hour DVD that spans they're entire career. But, if this is not enough, well read on. For all you fiends of the Finnish psych bands like Avarus and the rest, then this disc will please. Very krauty, droney, out there stuff that sounds like it was recorded in some dark forest in a remote part of Japan. Tribal, chants, moans, it's all here. Even the Jewelled Antler fans will love this stuff..." And that's pretty much our take on it too. (Thanks, Brent!)
We'll expand a bit on his review by saying that although at first glance the music cd is perhaps overshadowed by the novelty of the DVD that's got two hours of rare live video footage (of a band that not all that many people over here in the States have had the opportunity to see, after all), we think that it's the cd that's what you'll keep coming back to, after you've several viewings of the DVD of course. The cd is certainly not a *new* Ghost album or anything -- and is about as far from the professionally progged-out compositions of Ghost's well-liked, most recent album Hypnotic Underworld as you can get. These "Unreleased Ghost Tracks From the 1980s" see Ghost in sorta Sunburned Hand of The Man or NNCK territory (or the Finnish/Jewelled Antler realm as suggested by Brent), doing improvised fractured folk (a la first album outtake "Cow's Green Cosmic") and noisy free-jazz freak-outs (as on the half-hour minute track "Children Of The Earth"). Even without the dvd disc, we'd be recommending this, it's right up the AQ alley.
Meanwhile, the DVD assembles home video style footage of Ghost performances from the early days (all the way back to a solo Masaki Batoh protest "concert" in front of the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, back in 1984!!) up through 2004. The more recent footage (along with the menu graphics and box cover) reveal just how dangerously slick Ghost have gotten, while the earlier stuff has a charming amateur edge to it. In either case, a treat for Ghost fans -- though we wonder if a band that makes such otherworldly music (and is named Ghost, after all) risks losing some of their mystery by being documented visually like this... But fans can't really complain! Comes packaged with a booket containing notes and credits for everything you'll see and hear here.
Album number five (or is it six?) from America's "funny" man. This time Neil frames the record in the form of a documentary, with Mr. Hamburger's stand up peppered in between testimonials from people about the 'legendary' Di Presa's Pizza House and Neil Hamburger's fabled career at the fictional restaurant. Guest appearances from the former owner of Di Presa's, its patrons, a health inspector, a food critic and more. Not necessarily funny (but when IS Neil Hamburger actually funny?) but very weird and packed with plenty of WTF moments.
... is noneother than Elephant 6 Collective member Jeremy Barnes (of Neutral Milk Hotel and Bablicon). We know very well the degree of creativity and craft that goes into all of the E6 family's musical endeavors, and Barnes' latest musical pursuits are no exception. This is his second release under this moniker, and it picks up right where his self-titled debut left off, traversing the great expanse of folk music from around the globe (of which he's done his fair share of exploring in the past year). However, whereas he made his first AHAAH album all by his lonesome, for this one he recruited a full band. Heck, we can see why! In typical E6 fashion, he's encorporated an overflowing mixed bag o' acoustic instruments (various horns, bagpipes, accordion, ouds, piano, harp and assorted percussion). Barnes invites seemingly divergent elements from distant plains to entwine on Darkness At Noon. Keep your ears peeled for moments influenced by klezmer, flamenco and mariachi as well as interludes seemingly inspired by Carl Stalling, Steve Reich, and the solo accordion work of Lars Hollmer (member of Swedish prog rock greats Samla Mammas Manna). Like musical ivy, they creep and wind their way in and around each other. Very much in a similar film soundtrack-y vein to Tin Hat Trio's most recent album, the gorgeous Book Of Silk. The lead-off track "Laughter In The Dark" is a fitting entrance point. The seven minute long, richly atmospheric piece gradually lures you away from the lights and roar of the city towards more fire-lit enchanted surroundings. Barnes allows his adventurous spirit to run free, and we're fortunate to have a front row seat on his musical caravan.
Another one for everybody who loved the groovy HE 6 album we listed not long ago! Guitar player Shin Jung Hyun was a big deal in the South Korean rock n' roll scene, going as far back as the '50s, when he played for the GIs on American military bases. His music even was apparently the subject of a tribute album a few years ago. In the late sixties/early seventies psychedelia took hold, and Shin Jung Hyun did it as well or better than anyone... totally funky, tripped-out, acid-rock freakdom. Lots and lots of acid-fuzz guitar jamming with bass, drums, organ and some flute too. Maybe for that reason this reminds us a bit of Dungen, actually. The material on this album (which may actually be entited It's A Lie, we're not sure) dates around 1972 or so. Though 44 minutes long, there's just three songs here, "Beautiful Country", "It's A Lie" and "Woman In The Mist", all consequently long and meandering (yet rhythmically tight, believe it), and mostly instrumental. It seems that these three might have originally been the extended flip-sides to shorter, more commerical cuts, compiled onto this disc for the benefit of anyone into far-out psych jamming as wedded to Asian pop of the era. Not so much heavy as it is simply seriously groovy and right-on, Shin Jung and The Men blend garage rock/surf/Frisco ballroom styles into a head-nodding, toe-tapping, mind-blowing, utterly dazzling unravelling of whatever "song" it seems they started off playing. That means: the singer does some nice kinda soft psych pop crooning to start things off, but he soon disappears and the band just takes off into outer realms, doing their thing and stretching out without care for commerical (radio play) considerations. Eventually the singer shows up again, but it's as if he left the room and then came back in some minutes later to finish the song, utterly unaware of what his band had been up to in the interim! We can only imagine what their live shows were like, must have been killer -- as this disc is, killer.
Everybody's favorite Oakland-based Carcass-worshipping death metallers Impaled are back, with another bloody slab of gore, this time under the auspices of the Century Media label -- a step up from previous label Deathvomit, we think. They also seem to have dropped the shit schtick. They're less fecal, more foresnic this time around. Musically, they continue to improve as well, and although you can't accuse 'em of being the most original band ever, at least they are true to their roots and at this point must be the world's leading "medical metal" outfit (followed closely by the County Medical Examiners), proudly keeping the Carcass legacy alive -- they even NAME their guitar solos a la Carcass!
Interestingly, Death After Life was produced by Trey Spruance of Mr. Bungle/Secret Chiefs 3, who also makes some instrumental contributions, and handles the string arrangements!! Also new on (fret)board: guitarist Jason Kocol who a few of you might know as the collaborator of Steven Schultz in Puny Humans and Stalin Claus Superstar!
This is for everyone who flipped out about Inquisition's latest album Magnificent Glorification Of Lucifer, the one we highlighted on our last list (and which, unfortunately, we're all out of already, though more are on the way from Germany, never fear). We've just managed to get in a few copies of the band's earlier output, of which this is their debut disc, originally from 1998 (repressed in 2003). Compared to MGoL, it's equally super Satanic and weird, but a bit rawer in production (something that a certain sort of black metal fan would perhaps prefer). Their uniquely monotonous, croaking, creepy style is fully evident already, and the music surely suits their lyrics about black blood, chalices, red eyed beasts and horned moons. Ah yes, it's creaky crushing droning doomed demon moon moan metal at its best, or soon to be. And now I want to see all the terrible old black magic movies they sampled their song intros from...
This is hardly a tough sell. AQ faves Isis, the 'indie rock Neurosis', masters of the metal meets post rock pummel, with a flair for epic emotional song writing and capable of tempering their fist-in-your-face brutality with gorgeous melodies and strangely tranquil post rock passages, remixed and reinterpreted by an impossibly perfect lineup that reads as if they were handpicked by us! (Or you!) Fennesz, Thomas Koner, Venetian Snares, James Plotkin, Dalek, JK Broadrick, Tim Hecker, Speedranch and more! Most folks have already leapt out of their seats and tossed this puppy in their shopping cart, and we can't blame you. But for those of you who need a more in depth look, here's a track by track synopsis.
Disc One:
Fennesz offers up his immediately recognizable glistening sun dappled digitization, dreamy and otherworldly.
Ayal Naor of the band 27 delivers a version that is pretty true to the original but with some extra production tweakery and effects fuckery.
Thomas Koner unfurls a crumbling militaristic nihilistic drone, with creepy whispering voices, industrial whir and claustrophobic ambience. So good.
James Plotkin's version of "The Other" is all dreamy and melodic, with backwards drums, and isolated vocals, and plenty of deconstructed riffs and melodies, smeared into warm ambient noisescapes
The first of Tim Hecker's two takes on "Carry" is a wash of shimmering guitar, stretched into an epic thrum, a pulsing throbbing swirl of overblown guitar with minor key melodies buried underneath.
Teledubgnosis (featuring Ted Parsons of (Prong, Godflesh, Jesu, Swans) offer just what you'd expect, a modern dub version, with everything stripped away except the vocals and the background ambience.
Mike Patton adds his particular damage to "Maritime" turning in a super tweaked version with bizarre vocals, lots of random sound effects and loads of studio weirdness.
Disc Two:
Venetian Snares spits up a bizarre mix of dubbed out drums, super stereo panned guitars, isolated growly vocals, and reverb all over the place. Almost like a King Tubby / Lee Perry metal dub!
Tim Hecker's second version of "Carry" is a dense landscape of churning whorls of fuzzed out guitars, and warm whirls of ambient blur.
The Oktopus (aka Dalek) turns "False Light" into an industrial hip hop jam, with buzzing analogue synths, and the original's howled vocals careening from speaker to speaker. Like African Head Charge meets Neurosis.
Speedranch isolates the female vocals and douses the drums in massive reverb, and then chops the song into new shapes with hypnotic cd skipping riffs. Definitely the coolest, least annoying thing Speedranch has ever done!
The mysterious Destructo Swarmbots' track is a murky subterranean trawl through underground caverns and bottomless pits of droning rumbles and minimal distant melodies.
And JK Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) takes on "Hym", staying pretty close to the original, adding his machinelike rhythms and turning the majestic midtempo metal of the original into a lost Godflesh / Jesu track, which is most definitely a good thing.
Oooh, as if that recent Lau Nau cd on Locust wasn't enough (it wasn't -- fantastic female-fronted Finnish free-folk albums are few and far between and we'll take all we can get!!), then here's the brand new second album on Fonal from Islaja. Chances are if you're a dutiful AQ customer you're already hip to her, as we've been selling her debut album Meritie pretty steadily since it came out last summer. Sweetly haunting and gentle, Islaja's music represents the loveliest extreme of the aforementioned Finnish free-folk underground, her music not quite so freaky and fractured as that of countrymen/colleagues like Avarus and Kemialliset Ystavat. More dreamy than difficult, Islaja's music reminds us a bit of Greg Weeks' psychedelic folk outfit Espers...with her singing, also Brigitte Fontaine and maybe Tara Jane O'Neil. Her delicate vocals, whispering like a mother to a child, lilting and layered, backed with bells, accordion, acoustic guitar, melodica, samples, percussion, piano... So very nice.
Considerate, slightly pensive, intelligent, emotionally-balanced, fun-loving, stylish, SCANDINAVIAN, really into lying in a beautiful field on a clear night staring at stars, and really REALLY into lavishing you with loads of attention. Sound like a pretty sweet boyfriend? A boyfriend named... Jaga??
Hmmm, I know that was pretty weird, but it just seems like this double cd album from Norway's mega 10-piece band, Jaga (formerly Jaga Jazzist), is the perfect mate for plane or train travel, curling up with at night to read by the fire, afternoon painting sessions in the studio, and, oh, I don't know, dining on smoked salmon by the sea at sunset in a futuristic floating space-bar made of ice.
Jaga's latest -- a limited edition 2cd album, What We Must/Spydeberg Sessions -- is a stylistic culmination of their cosmic space jazz form. AND NOW! With more guitars! What We Must (the first disc) takes this trippy dippy blissful ride through a jazzy cosmos that doesn't seem TOO many light years away. Definitely their/his most mature and well-formed album to date. Every instrument, including all those electronic, is perfectly balanced in the mix. At no point does one speak more loudly above the others. That is, until the second song on the second disc!
All I Know Is Tonight (on disc 2) apparently is a "rough rough mix", but I love it! A nearly raging guitar lashes out at you in the first few measures before settling down into the musical pit. We must say, the roughness is really quite wonderful. The polish of their proper album songs almost lacks character in a way, leaving you to float around intelligently in their prozac'd smooth-space-jazz blissdom. It's nice to have both here. Glad they included this second disc! Other treats on it include demos of "Mikado", "Stardust Hotel" and "Swedenborgske Rom".
Fans of Sea and Cake, Tortoise and other like-mindedly thoughtful Thrill Jockey post-rock type artists should truly love this record. For you, it will take that sound to a new level. Level '05. Fans of Jaga's earlier works should be radiantly pleased with this. Tres recommended!
Another outing of hazy, jazz-dappled beauty from this instrumental German collective, I mean, kollektief, who are long-time AQ faves. Burbling drones, noirish atmospheres, electronic beats, lush melody, sampling and improv all combine on this gorgeous fifth album of theirs, Absencen. They've been compared (by us and others) to everyone from Fridge to Mum to AMM to Miles Davis... we're not gonna add any new names to that illustrious list for this review, rather we'd like to make the point that not only do they deserve such comparisons, Kammerflimmer now have pretty much established themselves as a standard for others to be compared against -- anyone who makes lovely, densely woven, textural soundscapey instrumentals that fall somewhere betwixt post-rock, jazz and electronica should be glad to be told they sound a bit like the Kammerflimmer Kollektief!
Yes, Kasabian are yet another major label retro-styled buzz band, but what's different with these Brits from the recent flurry is that the sources from which they're copping their sound are much more recent. Rather than drawing from the '70s and '80s, think early '90s Happy Mondays and Pop Will Eat Itself or Primal Scream's awesome rave-rock song "Swastika Eyes" (yeesh, that was from 2000!). However although Kasabian's music in many ways resembles that of those bands, theirs doesn't necessarily further nor better the originals. Plus their referencing of Neu and DJ Shadow does not help matters. Sure, there's plenty of Brit band high-falutin' bombast, but where's the adrenaline rush? Dare we peoclaim that the abovementioned "Swastika Eyes" lays this whole album to waste. Not to mention, their grammar is atrocious! "Trying not to make no sound"?! Uh, that is, unless they truly meant to say that they're trying not to be silent. Who knows? Anyways, if you liked the sound back then and are looking for a new party album of a similar ilk, you *might* wanna check out this glossy, remodelled -- but not necessarily upgraded -- version. Otherwise, you'll prolly be inclined to steer clear.
After several records exploring the internal mechanics of turntables (including a collaboration with Philip Jeck), the Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard turns to the earth itself as the source material for Eldfjall. Using a host of accelerometers, vibration sensors, and contact microphones that he buried in the earth during several trips to Iceland, Kirkegaard maps the sonic terrain of that island-country's volatile geothermal activity. Given the magnitude of his subject matter (the geological sites of rupture where two continental plates are slowly splitting apart), Kirkegaard's recordings are suitably rumbling drones of raw liquifaction. At the more subdued moments, wind can be heard whipping around these rocks (or could that be scalding hot water percolating through porous material?); but for the most part, Kirkegaard documents dense aggregates of vulcanized sound, pressurized water, and agitated vibrations that give the impression of some monumental seismic catastrophe. Kirkegaard's recordings impose a rigorous, clinical taxonomy upon sound, as each chunk of sound slams up against each other without the graceful transitions of a crossfade. Perhaps this is more true to the original source material, but such compositional decisions put Eldfjall closer to the dissonant jump-cuts of Daniel Menche's work. Nevertheless, fans of Toshiya Tsunoda and Chris Watson's Weather Report album should definitely take note! Very good.
Yet again, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon / Birchville Cat Motel madman Campbelll Kneale risks the wrath of child services by enlisting his offspring, Casper and WInter, in a 30 minute noise drenched free for all. Record number two from the Kneale family, this one is a speaker shredding burst of jagged noise and crumbling distortion. There might be songs and singing and other music type things present, but if they are, the kids have thrown them to the floor and stomped them to bits, then tossed them into the air, a massive swirling cloud of industrial rrroooaaar, like a battle royale between Total, Birchville Cat Motel and Hijokaidan. SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
First off, this is indeed a CASSETTE. Second of all this is EXTREMELY LIMITED. Extremely. Originally intended to be released along with the most recent issue of Oaken Throne Magazine, due to some unforseen manufacturing delays, Demos - 2000 is now available all on its own. And for a tiny piece of plastic this tape packs a mighty blackened wallop. Culled from the same material as Leviathan's debut 2cd Verrater (now out of print), these early demos are just as dark and bleak and weird and amazing as his subsequent releases. Maybe a little murkier, a little more buzzy and lo-fi, but hell, this is a BLACK METAL TAPE after all!!! Limited to 500 copies, of which we got the last handful. There is a forthcoming cd of demos on Moribund, but these tracks are -exclusive- to this cassette, unless of course you're one of the lucky few with a secret stash of early Leviathan tapes and cd-r's. But since you're probably not, odds are YOU NEED THIS!! AS with all things Leviathan, absolutely essential black metal listening!
Jackpine Records is home to many fine Bay Area artists' releases (Kelley Stoltz's Antique Glow, Parchman Farm's self titled debut, Oranger's Shutdown The Sun, as well as the compilations paying tribute to Joe South and Kris Kristofferson). Now they welcome a new member to the family... Loquat! You might already be fondly familiar with this SF band's sweet brand of smooth pop from their two cdeps (Penny Drop and Before The Momentum) and one 10" which we've carried in the past. If so, you'll probably be quite pleased with their latest offering, and if not, then this should make for a very pleasant introduction. If you like female fronted, lilting pop bands such as The Cardigans, The Cranberries or The Sundays, Loquat might be your new crush. Lead singer Kylee Swenson's voice continue to be a deadringer for that of The Sundays' Harriet Wheeler.
Please note: some of the songs from their previous releases reappear here. The ninth song "To The Floor" was originally on their debut Penny Drop cdep and their song "Swingset Chain" has been included on every cd release thus far. Yeah it's a great song, and yeah it was on a WB TV show, and yeah this is a freshly recorded version, but c'mon Loquat don't milk it to death! We know you've got plenty more where that came from.
Okay, enough grousing, but we just thought we should alert you to all of that, in case you were expecting a completely new album. Anyways, the sun is shining brightly today, and Loquat is taking its cue, beaming out warm, wonderful, well-crafted pop songs. Dreamy!
We dig Macromantics! She's one supa cool hiphop gal from Australia. Trouble is, there's seemingly never enough of her music to go around! She's got a scant two self-released cds out thus far (the more recent of the two being Hyperbolic Logic from late 2004), and they're not the easiest things to get a hold of. Fortunately though, we get at least a quick fix by way of those fine Quaketrap Collective folks from down the block who've offered up this short'n'sweet 7". One side has the lady bustin' out with her beat conspirator Shaggy Manatee (formerly of Pancake Circus) on her new track "Four Facets" while the flipside has a sharply chiselled remix of the Hyperbolic Logic album track "Conspiracy" by their pal Yoko Solo. Ah, leave 'em wantin' more! Pressed on white vinyl.
Macromantics is a lone lady ass-kickin' hip hop machine from Down Under. While we were admittedly charmed initially by her accent that pokes through when she utters certain words, her music had proven to have an impact of its own. There's no hyperbole involved when we say that Ms Romy Hoffman not only crafts rad atmospheric hip hop tracks but has quite a way with words too -- expounding on the power of love, truth, beauty and chaos. This is her second self-released album and it simply confirms that she's just getting better and better. Here's hoping she doesn't continue to be such a well-kept Aussie secret.
Think of a melding of the goodness of Japancakes, Mogwai and a smidge of The Notwist (AQ faves one and all!), sound good to you? Well, you don't have to imagine it! Just give this new cd by Marianas a spin. Very dreamily atmospheric and pastoral from start to finish -- the final track "Last Minutes Of The Day" perfectly captures the feel of the fading light of dusk. Sooo lovely!
Now on vinyl in the form of this ultra deluxe triple lp set!!!
Uh oh. Here we are again, with the band that creates lovers or haters more than any other I know. Although, I have to say, personally I'm kind of on the fence about them! Jon Theodore is one of the most amazing drummers I've ever seen or heard. Their live show is absolutely entertaining, especially when joined by John Frusciante, who's contribution of a second incessant guitar solo seems to make their music make sense. As well, Omar and Cedric's pants are just so tight, it is unbelievable. Their Tremulant EP was shocking. It was this full-on indie-power-prog, like nothing I'd heard before. Their music went somewhere... and kept on going... though, I don't think I understood exactly "where". Their debut full-length, Deloused In The Comatorium (with its odd name and pretty terrible artwork) was still totally beyond me. Not truly prog, not truly indie-pop... someplace in between, with technical insanity, near-constant meter-changes and polyrhythm incessantry. A lot of people seemed to take MV as though they were a total mess of music: ornate, pompous, not at all worthy of any ounce of praise, let alone the legions of "extreme" fans all over the world.
Now, Frances The Mute, their second full-length, is monolithic at 77 minutes long. Despite that length, it seems to be a bit more digestible. I would certainly have something that felt like jet-lag if I had to listen to the whole thing in one sitting, but to dedicated fans, of which there are many, this will hardly be enough power-progtastic-indie-pop. And of course, MV still features Lars Ulrich's and my favorite drummer, Jon Theodore.
Chances are, you probably haven't heard of the UK's Marzuraan. But if Earth, SUNNO))), Khanate, Boris, Corrupted, Eyehategod and others of that ilk mean anything to you, then you will probably want to add Marzuraan to that illustrious list of low-end, slowed-down, heavy-as-hell heroes. This is the band's debut cd from last year, that we recently tracked down in enough quanity (we hope) to list. Marzuraan wear their influences on their sleeve -- quite literally, in fact, as this disc comes in a nice cardstock package that folds out into a cross, designed by none other than Stephen O'Malley of SUNNO))) and Khanate. And the band's name is derived, we're pretty sure, from song by James Plotkin of Khanate's old band, OLD. So, no surprise then (only expectant satisfaction) that this starts off (and continues) in doomy dirge mode, heavy and sludgey, definitely very Earth-like, but live-recorded at high volume for maximum murk and grit and distortion. The proceedings are mostly instrumental, although what sounds like the snarl of feeding zombies breaks out at least once, to terrifying effect. Could almost be a battle between the vocalists for Caninus and Hatebeak!
Mainly, though, these folks are all about crushing you with their droning ambient metal riffs, as helped along by the sparse plod of the drums, and the constant presence of feedback, feedback that reaches a pinnacle on the third track "Martian Dub". By the end of the disc, though, Marzuuran have also gotten into some really nice lo-fi, distorted post-rock psychedelia, that then freaks out into an improv frenzy at the finish... Five tracks, one full hour. The raw production really works for this (they're not quite the Doktor Kettu of doom-drone, but close). We'll certainly be on the lookout for a limited edition (of course! argh!) double LP from these guys which we're told is upcoming.
The Macintosh iBooks and iMacs at Aquarius are getting old in digital years, and they're gradually showing their age. So, let's hope and prey that neither the "sad mac" icon nor the "chimes of death" start to haunt our aged computing system. For those Windows operators out there, these are the Mac equivalent of the "blue screen of death," calling attention that something quite dreadful has happened to the computer. Such anxiety producing indicators of a malfuncting computer are the subject matter for this album from German sound artist Stephan Mathieu. Despite the nail-biting angst that such dilemnas can cause, The Sad Mac is a benevolently tranquil recording in which a variety of sounds have been smeared into melancholic ambience, perhaps composed more as a balm of having to deal with those computer problems. Having established himself as one of premier digital composers with the Full Swing album Edits as well as his collaborative Heroin album with Ekkehard Ehlers, Mathieu makes a profound shift in methology as he eschews the "DSP-Magic" of his earlier albums in favor of a much simpler arrangement with a few digital programs applied as pixelated flourishes upon field recordings and minimalist compositions for violin, pump organ, and harpsicord. Even without all of the pixel pushing from his Max-MSP patches of yonder year, Mathieu still manages to construct beautifully sustained drones, seamlessly combining all of the elements as the flicker, echo, dissolve, blur, and expand with his signature fluidity.
Subtitled, From Oak Village. Which is, presumably, in France, where this live performance from the legendary Japanese avant-folk singer Kan Mikami was recorded in 2003. Not sure if this is the one to start with if you're not already a fan, but those already obsessed with the man's harsh and harrowing hybrid of Japanese enka and fucked up blues quite possibly will want this in their collections. Guitar and voice stripped to the bone, with the final track being the highlight, adding some satisfying feedback from French guest guitarist Fabrice Eglin. And Alan Cummings provides English tranlations of Mikami's lyrics, a nice plus to this package.
Dear Mr. John Darnielle, thank you for this album of heartcrushing beauty! The Sunset Tree has perhaps one of his most frank and deeply personal narrative threads to date, focusing on the trauma of the childhood abuse he suffered at the hand of his stepfather (who passed away last year and to whom this album is dedicated). Nearly all lyrical metaphors and disguises stripped away, this is Darnielle at his most direct yet no less poetic. On the stunning, achingly precise ninth song "Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod" he sings about his fears of waking the patriarch "sleeping off [his] demons" and hiding out in his bedroom, seeking some temporary escape to "rise above [his] station" by way of his imagination. Although the arrangements on this album are some of his most pared down of his 4AD releases, there is an increasing prominence of strings (courtesy of cellist Erik Friedlander) underlying the core vocals, piano and guitar which add looming shadows to the already stormy proceedings. As is the case with most every Mountain Goats album, when the final notes fade at the album's close ("Pale Green Things") you're left with a heavy ache in your chest, and as you muster a deep sigh, you reach over and press 'play' once more. Not an easy listen, but definitely an immensely moving and empowering one. Very recommended!
