This is essentially the perfect mix of Anticon's off kilter avant indie hip hop, and the Notwist's melancholy electronic bliss rock. Which makes perfect sense considering that 13 And God is made up of 3/5 of the Notwist (Markus and Micha Acher, Martin Gretschmann) and all of Anticon's Themselves (Doseone, Dax, and Jel). The rest of the Notwist (drummer Martin Messerschmid and guitarist Max Punktezahl) help with production and several tracks feature guest vocals from Steffi Bohm of Ms. John Soda and Valerie Trebeljahr of Lali Puna. That should give some idea of what 13 And God is all about. Dreamy expanses of melancholy glitchpop, wistful and wandering, simple shuffling and loping drum beats, fuzzy synth melodies, warm warbling loops, soft focused and otherworldly, and then the strange entangling of Notwist-like breathy effervescent vocals and Doesone's rapid fire tongue twisting helium affected flow. Seems like it would be a mess, but surprisingly, they manage to make it all fit perfectly. Fans of the Notwist's Neon Golden should find this essential (assuming they aren't averse to a little hip hop here and there) and fans of Themselves, Doseone and those sorts of things will most likely just find this to be yet another perfect piece in Anticon's always evolving musical puzzle.
If you're a regular AQer, you're probably more than a little familiar with our love/hate relationship with Ryan Adams' music. His albums have proven to be a source of much frustration around here. There'll be an absolutely fantastic song that you immediately fall in love with right alongside something unbelievably bland and generic. His latest release being a double cd had us wondering if he simply has difficulty editing himself. However, we were happy to find that this is perhaps his most consistent work in ages... and it's really not all that lengthy. The 18 songs could have fit on one cd, but Adams' choice to split it up harkens back to those '70s classic rock double albums from which he clearly draws much inspiration. The embossed gatefold sleeve and LP-looking disc art only add to this feel. Music-wise, for the most part, Adams keeps to the sorrowful country rock road, and this mid-tempo pace suits him well. Cold Roses reveals a more mature Adams who's not out to prove anything nor hop aboard any bandwagons. Oozing with confidence, not cockiness, and conveying a level of sincerity and expressiveness previously unheard from him since his Whiskeytown days. In fact, it seems he may have finally (re)discovered his own voice on this album. Although his music is still very much in the same stylistic vein as a number of his seniors, his vocal delivery this time sounds the least like those other folks (Westerberg, Springsteen, Petty). Perhaps all of this goodness is the result of his finding a new group of musicians for his backing band? It sure seems like they've clicked well, he actually co-wrote all of the songs with The Cardinals. Nothing like some new faces to recharge one's creative batteries, and even better when the end results are as good as this!
Recorded in 1974, smack dab between the lps reissued as Ethiopiques 6 (1973) and Ethiopiques 7 (1975) Alemye is the third entry in this series given over to documenting Ahmed's complete recorded output, a totally unique, gorgeously smooth funk / soul / jazz groove accompanied by Ahmed's unmistakable crooning. There are plenty of resources to read more about Ahmed and the history of Ethiopian music, on the net, even elsewhere on our website, but this review is all about the music. This is sexy sultry stuff, lively horns and fluttering flutes sway hypnotically above a muted rhythm section of bass drum and organ, in fact the rhythm section is so subdued that it almost sounds like it's bleeding through the wall from a room next door. But that gives it a super warm, warbly droning feel, all dreamy and mesmerizing and totally otherworldly. But it's all about that croon. Ahmed is known as the James Brown of Ethiopia, which makes sense in that he is definitely a funk / soul superstar there, but sonically, he is way less hyper and energetic, less wild and teetering on the edge of collapse, and way more broodingly sexual and sensual, lights low, the room cloaked in smoke, tense and mysteriously intense, his voice slipping smoothly up and down impossible scales, a rich warm velvet purr, capable of soaring into passionate wails and back down again, slithering and shimmering with that perfcet vibrato. Extensive liner notes and photos as with all of the amazing Ethiopiques releases, of which this is apparently the penultimate installment, and an especially great one at that.
This review comes courtesy of our pal Forrest, longtime AQ customer and fellow massive music geek:
Akron/Family comfortably fit within the same free-flowing post-rock continuum as many of Michael Gira's other signings for Young God. Like Larsen and Ulan Bator, instruments drop in and out of the mix as needed, making it hard, on first listen, to tell how many musicians produced the music on the album (there are four). Like Devendra Banhart, their lyrical preoccupations tend toward the sweetly metaphysical, with occasional bits of unconscious derangement popping out. Like Gira's Angels of Light (for whom Akron/Family are now the backing band), occasional moments of darkness and creepiness intrude in the mix, although Akron/Family are never as dark, heavy, or gravel-voiced as Angels of Light, following instead a wandering course between Jeremy Enigk's metaphysically obsessed solo album and the warbling sweetness of mid-period Flaming Lips. Gira produced the album, and brings to it what has become his trademark: the album is recorded as a densely-woven suite, with songs fading from one to the next. Like Larsen's Rever, this gives it a seamlessness that may not be to everyone's taste, as the album feels longer than it is. Unlike Rever, there are lots of actual songs, and while the music is occasionally muscular post rock (with synths, chimes, toys, found sounds, and whatever else seems to work), the songs themselves belong more to the school of psychedelic folk popular with folks like Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Six Organs of Admittance. It's hard to describe Akron/Family without making reference to other bands, as much in their sound is very familiar. Just the same, like every other Young God release, this record sounds like a transmission from some strange other dimension, being both very definitely a Young God record and its own unique thing.
From the looks of the felt pen scrawled disc artwork you might be expecting some Wolf Eyes, Black Dice or Lightning Bolt sweaty dirge-noise bursts, but The Alps go in the opposite direction, offering up glistening meditative soundscapes well-suited to gazing at frosty mountain peaks such as those of their namesake. Makes more sense when you discover that The Alps are Scott Hewicker (Troll), Alexis Georgopoulos (Tussle) and Jefre Cantu (Tarentel, Colophon, J.C. Ledesma), doesn't it?
Squeaky clarinets and alien flute toots melted into whirls of swish and whoosh, all laid over ominous drones and instrument hum and tape hiss. Quite beautiful. And as with many cd-r releases, quite limited!
King Of Techno??? Hmm. Well, the story of Bruce Haack is a tough one to tackle. He was an introvert of sorts, wildly imaginative, innovative and certainly the odd man out. A small town boy from Alberta, Canada that moved to NYC to make it big, only to become disillusioned by the soul sucking corporate music industry. What remained constant was his cosmic vision and communication through his visionary and otherworldly music. Until the late nineties, he was an obscure footnote in the history of early electronic music. But thanks to underground tape trading and rabid fans spreading the word, reissues and compilations have surfaced, resurrecting the legacy and world of Bruce Haack. Thankfully, we can now place a visual element to the imaginative sonics of Bruce's electric language via this newly produced film documenting the composer's life. In addition to archival television appearances and rarely seen photographs, we get wonderful stories from Bruce's colleagues and collaborators (Ted Praxiteles Pandel, Miss Esther Nelson, Chris Kachulis), and anecdotes from some of the original children featured on the Dimension 5 records! The rare television segments are the highlight of this documentary, including the legendary I've Got A Secret episode in which Bruce plays his Dermatron (*see footnote below*) on pianist Ted Pandel, as well as the 1968 episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in which Bruce demonstrates his musical computer! Unfortunately, the television appearance of Bruce performing the Dermatron on twelve girls (each pitched according to the western standardized chromatic scale) is not mentioned or shown.
And there are a few other omissions...for instance, as Don Bolles (Germs, 45 Grave, Kitten Sparkles, Three Day Stubble) was integral to the introduction of Bruce Haack not only to the filmmaker himself, but to the American underground throughout the nineties via his radio shows and travelling sound system, it would have been interesting to hear his take on Haack. Bolles, a longtime Haack fan and record nerd, was largely responsible for spreading the word as well as the distribution of cassette dubs to many friends. In fact, my first introduction to Bruce's music was via his gushing words about the man. Furthermore, experts like Irwin Chusid, Robert Moog, Russell Simmons (who commissioned the unreleased, yet widely pirated Party Machine) and like minded folks who long knew of the genius of Bruce Haack could have brought forth some insightful perspective.
So while Philip Anagnos' debut as a documentary filmmaker is a wildly ambitious one, some fans of Bruce's music will certainly have issues with context and some of the interview subjects. The large work of Bruce Haack transcends the limitations that the word "techno" conjures, as there is a massive genre of electric music that isn't necessarily "electronic". Once again, techno is a topic of controversy here as Anagnos got a lot of flack for this film's subtitle. Admittedly, he states that he called it as such simply because it "sounded really good", so don't let that turn you off this film completely. Definitely a door opener for those new to the music of Bruce Haack, just don't close that door on the way out...
*footnote* FYI The Dermatron was an early invention of Haack's, somewhat similar in design to the theremin. With the theremin, human hands control electronic capacitance via metal rods connected to the oscillators which emit variable frequencies. The Dermatron's capacitance is controlled not through metal rods, but through two separate currents which are connected to two separate human bodies. These two bodies act as the controllers of the oscillators, so when the two bodies touch, variable frequencies are created with the variable placement of flesh to flesh. Or something like that...cool!
So let's get the business stuff out of the way first. THIS IS VERY LIMITED. In fact, we have the only 17 copies left. Of the 50 ever produced. We tend to be kind of opposed to ultra limited releases, obviously if a release is good enough to release at all, and then spend loads of time and money on, then it makes sense that you would want as many people as possible to hear it. But sometimes cicumstances make that unrealistic.
Running a label is hard. Especially when you specialize in really strange music, spend a lot of money on packaging, and then don't sell a whole lot of records. Even though the records you release are amazing. This happens way more than you think. Often the result is cool little labels just giving up. Which is always a drag. In the case of Dielectric, another label with a houseful of unsold records, all of which we've raved about here, the solution was to start doing super limited, lovingly assembled cd-r's, limiting the financial risk, and of course the amount of space needed to store the damn things. So here we have the newest release by Arastoo, aka Arastoo Darakhshan, who produces some of the most haunting, gorgeously ethereal ambient music we've ever heard. Drifting and shimmering, these thirteen tracks, embrace nature, but in a totally abstract way, dark soundscapes of distant vibrations and subtle sonic shifts, late night expanses of moonlight and forest flutter, smoothed into warm, rich drones. There seems to be guitars, but the actual notes are muted and spread into dreamy ethereal wisps of sound. Really amazing. Coleclough, Mirror, Ora, Chalk and Basinski have nothing on Arastoo. Packaged with six oversized cards, printed with full colour images of industrial landscapes, mostly blown up abstract details, wrapped in a vellum outer sleeve that folds shut like the petals of a flower and is held closed with a wax seal!
Be warned, the wax seal is VERY delicate and will most likely crack or crumble in the mail, or even on the shelf, you'll just have to deal with it since you'll have to break the wax seal anyway to listen to it. So don't expect an intact one.
And again we only have 17 copies. After these are gone, it is gone for good!
Easily the most high concept Celebrate Psi Phenomenon release so far, Evaporation is one 47 minute track, assembled from numerous 'sound paintings' based on the concept of, obviously, evaporation. But evaporation in all facets of the world and our lives, the change from one state to another, changes in thought and behavior, everything. All contructed and recorded by Danish composer / sound artist Slavek Kwi, Evaporation is a subtle sonic world constructed from microscopic sound events, as well as everyday sonic intrusions, wind and conversation and clinking silverware and splashing water, but all subsumed into the whole, a vast expanse of gurgling electronics, crystalline shimmers, muter blips and bleeps, rumbling reverberations, ringing overtones, and all manner of miniature sound, interrupted halfway through, but only briefly, by a thnderstorm of rainlike sound, which quickly recedes as the piece resumes its barely there sonic metamorphosis. Definitely requires close and active listening, but for the listener who IS willing to lean in close and explore Artificial Memory Trace's slowly evaporating world, the reward is quite delicate and subtly beautiful. SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
William Basinski's Melancholia is a transcendent disc of gorgeous ambience featuring a delightful series of 14 vignettes for tape loops, flickering minimalism, and repeating piano figures. Like the Water Music series, the aptly named Melancholia is a reissue of an album that briefly appeared as a tiny edition cd-r and is now getting the proper cd release it deserves. Erik Satie, Brian Eno (e.g. Music For Films), and Aphex Twin (e.g. Selected Ambient Works II) haunt Basinski's echo-laden space and lilting romantic gestures, restructured from Basinski's seemingly endless archive of tape loops from the early eighties. Those of you who fell under Basinski's spell upon hearing his sprawling Disintegration Loops and Variations: A Movement In Chrome Primitive will have another reason to embrace his nocturnal driftscapes. Recommended!
Unfortunately, packaged in a cheap plastic clam shell with no additional artwork and no information about the recording.
Back in 2003, Basinski released the Water Music series on his own 2062 imprint on cd-r curiously in editions of 500. Unlike his much acclaimed Disintegration Loops series, the Water Music series is an exercise in minimalism exclusively for the Voyestra synthesizer. Basinksi offers an incredibly simple composition with steady humming drones burying an quietly repeating, muted electric lullaby. Basinski returns to the same ideas that Eno mastered on his early ambient releases and executes them with a similar panache for soothing tranquility.
PACKAGING NOTE:
No. No. No. When will these very talented musicians learn that it's a terrible idea to house their splendid music in blank jewel cases, clam shells, or prest-o-matic cases? David Jackman, Jonathan Coleclough, and now William Basinski should be ashamed of themselves for presenting their work in such poor packaging! Of course, we all have Raster-Noton to blame as they instigated that design principle with their uber-clean aesthetic, but Mr. Basinski would be much better served in providing a visual accompaniment to his work rather than following the barely-there aesthetic of Raster-Noton, et. al.
Back in 2003, Basinski released the Water Music series on his own 2062 imprint on cd-r curiously in editions of 500 also in a clam shell case. Unlike his much acclaimed Disintegration Loops series, the Water Music series is an exercise in minimalism exclusively for the Voyestra synthesizer. Basinksi offers an incredibly simple composition with a steady humming drones burying an quietly repeating, muted electric lullaby. Basinski returns to the same ideas that Eno mastered on his early ambient releases and executes them with a similar panache for soothing tranquility. The composition of Water Music is as good as the packaging is stupid.
PACKAGING NOTE:
No. No. No. When will these very talented musicians learn that it's a terrible idea to house their splendid music in blank jewel cases, clam shells, or prest-o-matic cases? David Jackman, Jonathan Coleclough, and now William Basinski should be ashamed of themselves for presenting their work in such poor packaging! Of course, we all have Raster-Noton to blame as they instigated that design principle with their uber-clean aesthetic, but Mr. Basinski would be much better served in providing a visual accompaniment to his work rather than following the barely-there aesthetic of Raster-Noton, et. al.
The return of Campbell Kneale's (Birchville Cat Motel) shadowy cloaked, blackened dirge-drone-sort-of-metal alter ego Black Boned Angel. The latest in Celebrate Psi Phenomenon's Battlecruiser series of ambient experimentalists gone metal. This twenty minute chunk of grim sludge is a little teaser for a forthcoming double cd!
Not quite as overtly metal as the recently reviewed Supereclipse cd, Eternal Love starts off much more sonically aligned with Kneale's more ambient exploits with BCM. Things start to go south (as in south of Heaven) a few minutes in with the introduction of creepy crawly gothy bass lines, drifting through the abyss, bass riffs begin but are abandoned part way through only to resurface moments later, like the skeleton of Joy Division, reanimated and lurching drunkenly through the scorched and barren underworld. Eventually this haunting bass line slips off the edge and into a suffocating blackened swirl of downtuned ultra distorted bass, grinding slow motion metal guitar, and plodding industrial percussion, a head crushing plod offering some sort of rhythmic guidance through Eternal Love's hellish tar pit trawl. SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
Third album from these Virginia natives formerly known as the Black Twig Pickers. Building on their previous albums the now quartet -- fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass -- has expanded their sound outwards from their strictly old-timey roots to include more of a bluegrass repertoire. They're vastly improved by the change, with the songs on this album having a greater variety of tempos and arrangements: from lush bluegrass ballads to sparse high lonesome tunes with scratchy fiddle and clawhammer banjo. Additionally the Black Twigs have been woodshedding their songwriting skills, the results of which here are a majority of originals and only four renditions of traditional numbers and standards. Those still lamenting the demise of The Bad Livers should definitely pay heed.
Sure, all you drone obsessives and out rock freaks can't get enough Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, an endless fount of whir and rumble and skree and grrr and rrroooaarrr. But this new record from James Blackshaw is a whole 'nother ball of... um.. steel strings apparently. Celeste is made up of two 15 minute tracks (one played in open C major tuning, the other in open C minor) of totally mesmerizing Appalachian raga folk, performed mainly on 12-string acoustic guitar with occasional farfisa organ and cymbals. Fans of John Fahey, Jack Rose, Matt Valentine and all things free folk will be completely blown away. There's still an element of drone in the repetitive raga-like riffing, but this is mainly and most definitely a weird and wonderful modern avant bluegrass / folk record. Lovely! SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
Not metal -- not remotely. So why did they get written up in Terrorizer magazine? Well this German four-piece isn't exactly a jazz band either, even though they utilize such instruments as Fender Rhodes electric piano, vibraphone, double bass, and saxophone. No, they're actually really really heavy though it's always hard to explain how something this quiet and this pretty can be "heavy". But you'll feel it when you hear it. Their special brand of Teutonic, minimalist, noir-jazz influenced "heaviness" is not to be denied. And so it makes sense that they like grim black metal and that people who like grim black metal like them. A very special band, certainly unknowable to some, but very well liked 'round here. So we were pretty excited to hear that the release of this new album Geisterfaust ("Ghostfist") was impending. And it does not disappoint. Five tracks for the five fingers of the Ghostfist (skeletally represented in the cd digipak). Almost one full hour.
Thusly, a Bohren album cannot be properly absorbed in little snippets. The time frame within which their compositions work is not conducive to quick scans or distracting environments -- even the shortest of the five tracks here isn't much less than eight minutes in length, and the opening track "Zeigefinger" is a 20+ minute experience. So, when I got my copy of this (oooh) I took it home and drew the curtains, lit the candles (well, ok I didn't really light any candles, but could have), and assumed a relaxed pose in order to let the music of Geisterfaust infiltrate my conciousness. Which it did. At Bohren's usual glacial pace, which utterly starts to alter one's perception of time. The long songs are endless...then over. Eternity telescoped. So spare and melodious. Like magnified drops of rainwater, falling on the petals of a shivering flower. The vast space of Bohren's music makes the listener concentrate, and gives each and every note (a vibraphone chime, perhaps, surrounded by a nimbus of a gentle cymbal-strike's shimmer) extra weight and meaning. The Bohren aesthetic certainly holds that less is more. Even though there's guests -- a tuba player and a choir, even -- augmenting the basic Bohren quartet on several of these tracks, you're never overwhelmed with sound, but with silence. And the sheer *subsonics* that a band with two bassists can generate. Geisterfaust flows exquisitely, the listener's pulse rate slowing. Calm. Cool. Bliss. Stupor. So gorgeous, soo heavy. There we go again. This IS heavy. You'll see.
Basically it's like some utterly slow crushing doom band (the Melvins at their most monolithic -- Khanate -- Caspar Brotzmann Massaker -- Corrupted -- Gore) with their instrumentation transposed into the "jazz" realm. The snare only brushed. The distorted electric guitar replaced with the tinkle of a Rhodes piano. Notes not riffs. Played like a dirge, with hints of drone, sombre and sad, but beautiful. There's only a smidgen of saxophone (dreaded by some) that is brought in only at the very end of the last very track, one that is almost speedy by Bohren standards, to act as the light at end of the tunnel, the sun's rays just over the horizon...
Our friend Bjoern in Germany (of Caacrinolas), who first turned Allan and thus AQ on to Bohren five or six years ago, emailed excitedly about the release this new album (that's often when we hear from Bjoern, actually!). Here's a quote from his email: "...fucking amazing!!! Better probably than anything they have done before! You need this for AQ!!! It will sell zillions of copies!" Well of course. As a follow up to the Ipecac-released Black Earth, this is an even greater triumph. Brilliant.
The new (latest) Boredoms album, previously only available last year as a verrrry expensive (but worthwhile) Japanese import, now is unleashed domestically by the good folks at Vice Recordings. Yay!
Our impressions from when we got the import: We thought they'd changed their name to Voordoms, as they were (sort of) billed last time they brought their psychedelic drum circle show on the road to San Francisco, but this says Boredoms right on it. Regardless, they've continued on with the hippie, rhythmic trance-drone sounds of their live shows, something also established on their last album, Vision Creation Newsun (and before that, too). As the title indicates, you get two 'songs' here -- "Seadrum" and "House Of Sun". Both of course are quite long! This is Boredoms in what we call their full 'Alice Coltrane' mode, with piano and female vocals and cosmic vibes galore. Lovely stuff. Reminds us of AQ-faves The Necks somewhat as well!
Vice has even duplicated the packaging of the Japanese version, an opaque sparkly blue jewel case with title and artwork printed directly on the front.
It's nightfall again, time to dream ancient dreams of the epicus doomicus. Yes, it's a NEW album from '80s Swedish doom metal legends Candlemass. It's been a few years...
The classic line-up has re-united at last, so heavy metal monk Messiah Marcolin is back at the mic, and guitar solos flow again from the fingers n' fretboard of lead axe wielder Lasse Johansson. No true metaller can be unmoved. Though bassist/riffmaster Leif Edling kept busy in recent years with some other projects and even did a couple records with variant line-ups of Candlemass (1999's From The 13th Sun, the last album to bear the Candlemass name, is actually one of our favorites in their discography), fans have been wanting to hear more from the same band that gave 'em old faves like Nightfall and Ancient Dreams, back when they could claim to be "the heaviest band on the planet" (amazing but true). So they did it. And Messiah's powerful pipes are as good as ever, while Leif & Co. churn out the Sabbath-riffed epicks like it's 1987. I don't think too many old Candlemass fans will be disappointed. Not already a fan? Well, if you don't have any of their records, it might be strange to start with this one and not already have one of their '80s classics in your collection, but then again this sure will give you a fine idea of what their sound is all about. For the most part though, we imagine this release is meant for those whom the name "Candlemass" already means a lot. Indeed, that's probably why the cover of this simply self-titled return is blank white except for their gothic logo and a small cross! Worshippers note, this is the import digipack version with bonus track "Mars and Volcanos".
If you dug the recent Yeti ep from this Canadian fella (Dan Snaith formerly aka Manitoba), you might be cravin' more Caribou right about now. Well, whad'ya know? His new full length just came a-flutterin' in. Dreamy electronic indie pop with plenty of nature themes -- lots of buzzy, chirpy, insect-y sounds and song titles include "Bees", "Barnowl", "Lord Leopard", "Hello Hammerheads" "Pelican Narrows" and of course the "Yeti". Amid the wildlife, he also fits in a respectful nod to the great electronic music innovator Morton Subotnick on the album's second track "Subotnick". Overall, he creates a soft, smudgey pastel hued scene in which he dabbles with dreamy shoegazer and cyclical krautrock influences to good effect.
From the label that most notably brought us those two amazing releases from the Moglass, comes this latest missive from those mysterious Ukrainian drone / sound artists, this time sharing a little disc space with Americans Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Vanessa Arn (Primordial Undermind). Carter and Arn offer up two tracks totalling over 30 minutes, of lonely lap steel guitar, hovering atop drifting sheets of muted feedback, ghostly harmonic traces, and mournful melodies twisted and pulled apart into bits of sound, drifting dreamily through an ambient dronescape of whir and flutter. The Moglass give us three gorgeously creepy and haunting drones assembled from what sounds like bowed metals, reverberating into dark ripples of sound, minor key melodies melt into swirling pools of crystalline warble, flecked with strangely affected guitars, almost percussive, plucking out other alien melodies that give the whole thing an almost post rock vibe. As with everything on Nexsound, gorgeously packaged in a silkscreened cardboard sleeve with a little cardboard obi!
Listening to Clarinette, is kind of like listening to a speed metal band called Tuba, or some intense drum and bass DJ called Piccolo. You're just gonna have your head spun if you're expecting the band to sound like the name. Several years after releasing an lp on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, Clarinette aka Dan Vallor returns with a weird and wild, sonically expansive cd-r for Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. This is beautiful challenging stuff, all over the place, but no hint of clarinets that's for sure....
Gorgeous heavily affected solo piano, crumbly, grimy slabs of distorted fuzz chopped and delivered in strange stuttery melodies, fuzzy lo-fi drones, angular free jazz piano freakouts, gentle pastoral almost new age soundscapes of piano and lots and lots of echo, in fact we're tempted to think Mr. Vallor is in fact a piano player. This could be like George Winston and Cecil Taylor getting together, dropping acid and playing through a very bad trip, jamming with some equally doped up noiserock friends. The whole thing a tripped out, druggy and dreamy soundscape, all wrapped in pillows of thick reverb and every note dipped in ECHO and flung into the musical pond sending out ripples that go on forever. SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
This isn't metal exactly, but it is HEAVY. And it's not punk, although it is raucous, unruly and unkempt. It's not screamo though there is a LOT of screaming. And it's not noise, but boy is it noisy! And it's for sure not powerviolence, even though it is indeed quite powerful and most definitely violent. This is more like a drum kit, a bunch of guitars, a bass, HUGE amps, and a guy screaming his lungs out, all loaded into a cannon and fired at your ear, mere inches away, blowing you head into a million pieces. Grinding, thrashing, chaotic, relentless, brutal metallic punk rock noise. Wow. 42 songs, 32 minutes, average song length about :40 (the shortest clocking in at :10, the longest still a brief 1:30) and some of the best song titles EVER: "Dead Parents, Yea!", "We Sticks Butter", "My Foot, The Catheter", "Plastic Bullets Are So '84", "Also Comes In Red, Orange And Fuck You", "Shit 3:16", "Q: What Kind Of (A Band) Name Is Scrotum Grinder? A: A Terrible One.", "Cumbersome Ant People" and thirty six more!
Pittsburgh grinders return with their second full-length of fierce death metal, and it's a doozy indeed. With Synthetics, Commit Suicide have achieved that rarest of accomplishments -- delivering a follow-up album that stays completely true to all of their original elements while bolstering every component that made them such an immediately powerful force on their debut. Everything seems just punched up a notch here. Be forewarned, this is relentless death metal without the slightest breach of accessibility for those not interested in the fastest most aggressive style of music possible. But if you're willing to submit, the execution is flawless. Non-stop blazing riffage with a million stops and changes between speeds varying from fast to pretty fast to full-on blasting, with a vicious growler roaring overtop. There really isn't a single stand-out member though -- the band functions seamlessly as a whole, with all changes felt on guitar bass and drums as one. For fans of Death, Dying Fetus, Morbid Angel and the like, look no further for uncompromising brutality.
Seems like it's been a while since we've had a really nice, classic space-aged bachelor's pad kind of reissue hit our shelves. Frank Comstock's Music From Outer Space from 1962 fits the bill quite nicely. In the original liner notes -- reproduced here along with the original cover art -- it is declared that "special effects" are used sparingly. Comstock, it appears, was a man of melody, who wanted to create his out space symphonettes using his arranging talents and not "electronic gimmickry". Don't let that scare you away though, he actually uses quite a lot of both to great effect. For starters, there's theremin all over this album and when there isn't thermin there's electric violin. Add to these a full studio orchestra, Hammond B-3, Novachord (an early tone-wheel organ that Hammond introduced in 1939), electric guitar, bass and drums and some serious stereo effects, reverb and delay and you've got quite a bit of gimmick going on; though maybe not as much as what was going on in the day, what with cement mixers and car horns being fair game. His use of the theremin to supplant Hawaiian guitar is... otherworldly. Elsewhere Comstock makes use of the pitch control on the tape machines and actually running tape backwards to achieve some creepy sounds. But musically Mr. Comstock can really give himself a pat on the back for some freaking bizarre arranging. "A Journey To A Star", from the film The Gang's All Here, has some seriously neurotic turns. A nominally pastoral melody, Comstock twists the melodic resolutions to make every statement a question mark. Other adaptations from films aren't much different and have a tendancy to make you feel a little uneasy, like getting out of the chair at the dentist's office a little too abruptly. His own composition "On the Dark Side of the Moon" is borderline maniacal with its augmented twists and tritonal embelleshments. Another original by Comstock, "Journey To Infinity" is a lightspeed collision course of Cole Porter with George Gershwin in the Beach Boys' studio. Far out!
What has to be our favorite British pagan folk psychedelic prog rock album ever (in other words, quite possibly our favorite album ever, period!) is finally available again on cd, and in a gorgeous Japanese mini-lp gatefold sleeve to boot, with the disc itself all state-of-the-art remastered, sounding great.
THIS RECORD SCARES US. Hearing it is like stumbling upon some forbidden ancient ritual that scares you to death. You stand paralyzed, too afraid to look away. Comus's singular, frightening sound and violently poetic lyrics have kept them from taking their rightful place alongside Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, and the rest of Britain's psychedelic folk royalty.
And we don't write the words psychedelic folk royalty without a certain amount of trepidation. At first glance Comus would seem to fit squarely in the Ren-Faire camp: bongos, flute, oboe, 12-string guitar, and no drummer. But never has the whole of a band so completely defied its parts; their sound is as mesmerizing as it is repulsive. Upon the record's initial release, one British music journalist wrote that she "didn't get past the first track, which sounded like a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth, and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Funny thing is, that's a fairly apt description. Tales of murder, rape, insanity, and witchcraft unfold amid a swirling abyss of seething acid folk. Squalls of shamanistic wailing jut uncomfortably from serene, tranquil melodies; guttural growls battle a delicate angelic chorus, echoing the violent struggle of the lyrics. Flutes, hand drums, acoustic guitars, and a violin clamber atop one another in a chaotic melee, creating a pagan folk not unlike that of The Wicker Man soundtrack gone totally bonkers.
Although the band has been resolutely ignored by mainstream music fans, the press, and the majority of the underground, a small rabid following has kept a reverential vigil beside the corpse of Comus.
Nurse with Wound cronies Current 93 modeled their '90s sound after '70s British folk, Comus especially. They even went so far as to cover "Diana," Comus's only single, on their album Horsey. Swedish progressive black metallers Opeth have always been outspoken about their love of Comus. Their acclaimed 1998 album was called My Arms, Your Hearse, after the lyrics of "Drip Drip" (on First Utterance). And it's not surprising. This record is so powerful and frightening and totally devastating even 30 years later.
And never would I have thought that a record as old as me, with flutes and bongos fer chrissakes, could be so absolutely malevolent, both sonically and lyrically! But like I said, this record scares us. And we know you like to be scared too!
We were hoping that this new cd edition would include the two bonus tracks from from an early single that the Italian vinyl reissue included as a bonus 12", but such is not the case. Oh well. Still ranks as one of our all time favorites.
We can almost hear Bobby Conn shoutin' "Come on down!!!!" Much like the Price Is Right, Conn and his backing band The Glass Gypsies were recorded in front of a live studio audience for this release... and it certainly is lively! A glammy, glittery, groovy good time, but we wouldn't expect anything less from The Conn now, would we? Actually the over-lit photos on the cover could easily be mistaken for stills from the 1980 musical movie The Apple, and the music bears more than a striking resemblance too. An abundance of noodly guitar solos, falsetto, backing singers and it looks like there were costume changes too. Think a low budget, neighbourhood version of Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, P-Funk and the talent show scene in The Beaver Trilogy (the one with Crispin Glover, not Sean Penn). Super silly fun!
Note: this cd is enhanced with two trippy video clips of the show, but we have to lament, "why wasn't this a dvd!?!"
Cool cool. A super-limited 7" release from San Francisco's psychedelelectro dirge party band, Crack: We Are Rock. Three hundred and thirty three of these were put out, as part of a 7" series from 333 Recordings.
It's been quite a while since we last heard from those frisky Bay Area residents Cubby Creatures, but they've always had a knack for reappearing right when a bright, warming beam of slightly woozy pop is needed. On their new self-released album After The Deprogramming, they've kept to the basic sound of their handful of past releases -- blending together psych, folk, indie pop and assorted other quirky sweetness -- but seem to have shed their early lower-fi ramshackleness for good, in favor of more composed tunefulness. After The Deprogramming is certainly a much more focused and polished work. That said, there's still a bounce in their step, but the playfulness is now counterbalanced by an occasional dip into darker dramatic territory. Hurrah!
Seventeen Seconds from 1980. Faith from 1981. Pornography from 1982. These three Cure albums marked a steady descent from jet-black detachment into one of the most violently claustrophobic visions of all pop music. It was a trilogy of records that The Cure have always hoped to reproduce, and with the exception of their masterful Disintegration, this was a goal never attained. You may recall that several months back, Rhino Records reissued the first Cure album, Three Imaginary Boys, with plenty of demo material and live tracks from the same period to the acclaim of Cure fans around the world. Well, Rhino have done it again in reissuing this trilogy of goth-pop landmarks, again with bonus material of live cuts, studio outtakes, alternate versions, and rare cuts.
If for whatever reason you are waffling about which one of these reissues to get (which you shouldn't be!), the one to get is Faith. This is not because Faith is the best of the three records (that's too close to call), but because of Robert Smith wisely included the soundtrack to "Carnage Visors" as one of the rare tracks on this double CD set. "Carnage Visors" was an animated film produced by Ric Gallup as the opening act for the Faith tour back in 1981. 27 minutes long and entirely instrumental, it's a lugubious piece grounded by an elliptical, moody kaleidoscope of Simon Gallup's basslines, accentuated by a simple drum machine and chiming guitars from Robert Smith. If Rothko had extended their swansong "Roads Become Rivers" into a half an hour composition, it would be pretty close to the majesty of "Carnage Visors", which had first appeared as the b-side to the cassette version of Faith back in the '80s, and hasn't seen the light of day appart from unauthorized bootlegs. Lest you think that this is the only reason to get the double disc set, the original set of tracks of Faith is an exceptional manifestation of manic depression with the undeniably bubbly pop jangle of "Primary" set against the appropriately titled "The Drowning Man" and the equally somber "All Cats Are Grey."
Seventeen Seconds from 1980. Faith from 1981. Pornography from 1982. These three Cure albums marked a steady descent from jet-black detachment into one of the most violently claustrophobic visions of all pop music. It was a trilogy of records that The Cure have always hoped to reproduce, and with the exception of their masterful Disintegration, this was a goal never attained. You may recall that several months back, Rhino Records reissued the first Cure album, Three Imaginary Boys, with plenty of demo material and live tracks from the same period to the acclaim of Cure fans around the world. Well, Rhino have done it again in reissuing this trilogy of goth-pop landmarks, again with bonus material of live cuts, studio outtakes, alternate versions, and rare cuts.
Where Seventeen Seconds and Faith are clearly born of the same sensibility with grey, rainy production spaciously drizzled throughout archetypal mope rock tracks, Pornography is a considerably different beast. Smoldering with intensity and claustrophobic to a fault, Pornography is easily the darkest album that The Cure has ever produced. From the doomy opener "One Hundred Years" to the title track with cascading drum machine marches and relentless blasts of guitar noise, Robert Smith unleashes an anger in his self-loathing that doesn't manifest itself anywhere else in his signature gloomy romanticism.
Seventeen Seconds from 1980. Faith from 1981. Pornography from 1982. These three Cure albums marked a steady descent from jet-black detachment into one of the most violently claustrophobic visions of all pop music. It was a trilogy of records that The Cure have always hoped to reproduce, and with the exception of their masterful Disintegration, this was a goal never attained. You may recall that several months back, Rhino Records reissued the first Cure album, Three Imaginary Boys, with plenty of demo material and live tracks from the same period to the acclaim of Cure fans around the world. Well, Rhino have done it again in reissuing this trilogy of goth-pop landmarks, again with bonus material of live cuts, studio outtakes, alternate versions, and rare cuts.
Seventeen Seconds began the creative partnership between Robert Smith and bassist Simon Gallup which is essentially the foundation for all of the great work from The Cure. Where the previous bassist Michael Dempsey gave The Cure a spry, punchy sound that fit more in line with contemporaries like The Jam, Gallup's lumbering basslines presented themselves as a counterpoint to Smith's manic-depressive jangle. While much needs to be said for Smith's unmistakable whining voice, hurricane-shock hair, and smeared eyeliner in defining Goth rock, there is a clear reason why The Cure has been the salvation to millions of dour kids everywhere: Smith and Gallup came up with some damn great songs. "A Forest" has long been a favorite for anyone who at one time or another sported a little black lipstick, and one cannot overlook the minimalist pop bleakness of tracks like "Play For Today," "Three," and the title track. Of the rarities on Seventeen Seconds, the most intriguing tracks come from the side project Cult Hero, which produced more punky-pop tracks similar to those heard on Three Imaginary Boys. Along with this, you'll find plenty of live tracks and a couple of studio demo tracks.
Cool. A super-limited 7" release from San Francisco's no-wave noise militants, Curse Of The Birthmark. Three hundred and thirty three of these were put out, as part of a 7" series from 333 Recordings. Features Weasel Walter from Flying Luttenbachers on keys.
Intimate. Beautiful. Inspired. Damon & Naomi! The Earth Is Blue features 10 tracks, recorded in their home studio with special guest guitarist, Michio Kurihara, of Japan's psych-folk great ones Ghost. Also contributing are Greg Kelley and Bhob Rainey. Eight original tracks feature harmonic delicacies and melodic intricacies. In the same vein, interpretations of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and Caetano Veloso's "Araca Azul" resound sweetly on this release. Highly recommended!
Single disc reissue of two long out of print cd-r's, Seizure and Appalling and Alive 3, from Aaron Dilloway, 1/3 of noise-drone-electronic terrorists Wolf Eyes. This is for the noisy at heart, four slabs of sonic brutality, one a whirring low end electronic oscillation, with occasional instrumental crackle that slowly becomes a primitive techno-like throb before the whole thing is taken over by amplifier meltdown, damaged synth crunch and ear-to-a-jet-airliner-turbine skree. Another a cricket like chatter, cud chewing alien smack and splatter, warbling short wave loops, all swallowed whole by a million TV's spewing the sonic snow of no-channel fuzz. The third a chunk of miniature insect crinkle-scapes, clatter and click, creak and chirp, ultra distorted primal howls, chopped up and distorted to hell, splattered with all sorts of squiggly electronic interference and slabs of pink noise. The last a furious eight minute pummelling in the form of a synthesized Keiji Haino jamming with analog Merzbow recorded on a Fisher Price tape recorder at bowel melting volume. The kind of sonic brick to the face that leaves you smiling like a lunatic with a mouthful of broken teeth.
Arguably the greatest grind band ever! Meaning you could argue they weren't, but you would be dead wrong and would summarily lose any argument to the contrary. DA combined impossibly complex composition, with furiously blurred execution, all held together by some of the most creative, innovative and cryptic design we've seen in ages, -especially- from a grind or metal band! They added a hyper intellectual slant to an already politically charged scene, forgoing all the gore and guts and stuff in lieu of, well, ART. The breakup of Discordance Axis was a blow to metal and grindcore freaks worldwide and as always with things like that, rumors started circulating about a lost, unreleased DA record. Well, the rumors were partially true. Two songs, recorded but unreleased did in fact exist, and are finally getting released with loads of extra stuff, in that immediately recognizable Hydra Head / Discordance Axis oversized DVD style packaging. So the good news: the two new songs are AMAZING, fucked up and brutal, dizzyingly and impossibly dense and intricate. The bad news: the two new tracks clock in at a total time of 1:42. But thankfully DA manage to pack in about a jillion changes and parts into that minute and a half.
So then there's the extra bonus material on this here DA 'single'. First you've got ten tracks credited to 'Cide Project' which could be a real band but is probably more likely one of the DA guys fucking around on his computer. That said, these tracks are SO AWESOME, fully rendered MIDI versions of all your favorite DA tracks. Fuzzy computer synths and chaotic drum programming turn these grind classics into buzzing, fuzzed out midi blurs. Like a grindcore Anton Maiden! Then there's a bunch of bands covering their favorite DA tracks, Gate, Mortalized, Noiseear, none of whom we've heard of but who all offer up appropriately thrashing grinding tribute. Then there's Melt Banana's cover, which turns the DA original into a minute of bizarre skronky, bleeping blooping grindpop. Also included is the full version of Merzbow's interpretation of DA's The Inalienable Dreamless, an insanely chaotic mix of Japanoise, spacerock skree, and about a million skipping Discordance Axis cds. And finally, to finish things off, the first song from DA vocalist Jon Chang's new outfit Gridlink, a dense shrieking exercise in turbulent, super spastic grind! Now we can all anxiously await the forthcoming War Chalking record, featuring members of Discordance Axis, Human Remains and Burnt By The Sun (counting some folks twice or thrice!). Yowza!
We've always had customers askin' for kids music, but there's also always been a dearth of suitably AQ-ilk releases... until now! The recent flood of children's music compilations arrivin' here (so many in fact that we've made a children's section in the store!) has spurred us to ask, "just what does it take to categorize something as 'child worthy'?" Okay, besides the obvious 'no swear words' rule, what other criteria is there? Lots of the recent stuff we've received that's been hailed as kinder-oriented has just been light, bubbly, electronic musicbox-y melodies. Pleasing enough to listen to, but not particularly attention-grabbing nor attention-keeping. What?! Don't the artists think the kids wanna rock too? Really, with the exception of They Might be Giants' Here Are The ABCs album which is both thoroughly educational and engaging, most of the releases seem to be offering sedation rather than stimulation. Hmm, maybe it's the musician-parents' sly way of seeking some respite from their kids' hyperactive behaviour? Well, unlike most of the current pre-school poseurs (wink!), this cd features honest to goodness kids! Duplex is a band whose members' ages range from 3 years old up to 37! Much like TMBG there's some pretty fine pop songwriters in the Duplex camp -- the elder members also play in a number of Vancouver bands (including A.C. Newman's). Ablum is filled with eighteen delightful story songs and singalongs (topics include salad, multiplication, camels, a character called Mr. Slim, and uhh, pooing and peeing). Apparently it's even been accepted for distribution to all of the elementary schools up in Vancouver. How's that for a stamp of approval?
These are sure some super pretty Blinking Lights... and there's so many of 'em they couldn't fit on one cd! This double disc album boasts a whopping 33 songs! There's such an outpouring of emotion it's easy to see why it couldn't be contained on one cd. While their previous full length 2002's Souljacker took their fans to a typically Eels-style perky quirky place, it seems spirits have dampened since then. Is playtime over for the Eels? The heart of this considerably more 'mature' album is woven from equal parts melancholia and romantic yearning -- very much in the vein of Sparklehorse. As well, in the midst of the first disc, it struck us just how much Eels mainman Everett's voice has developed a soft hoarseness very akin to that of Britt Daniel of Spoon. In fact, if folks who previously steered clear of Eels (due to the band's quirky nutty factor) give this album a chance, they might be pleasantly surprised. In a way, it's a sort of equivalent situation (maybe a bit less extreme) to when Beck released his deeply personal album Sea Change after the funky soul-drenched Midnite Vultures. Actually, there's a number of songs on Blinking Lights' second disc that parallel the heartfelt shuffly-footed prettiness to some of those on Sea Change. Soft, mellow and nice.
On their latest album, Electrelane continue to wear their appreciation for Neu! on their eight sleeves (and they'd probably wear them on even more if they had more arms). This UK band is four ladies, but it's definitely leader of the pack Verity Susman's show. She handles the lions share of the instruments (piano, organ, harmonium, saxophone, guitar and voice) as well as writing the choir and brass arrangements. Her (their?) past untethered eccentricities have been reined in considerably on Axes to good effect. This is definitely a tighter, more focussed Electrelane. The freewheelin' abandon is still present but its much more concentrated -- striking a balance between their earlier rough, space-y instrumentals and their more recent straight-forward vocal pop song endeavors. For the heavier portion of this album's baker's dozen, they launch into driving Krautish jams, ramping up the tempo on each to a frenzied finish (in fact, they do it on almost every one of those tracks). So, it's not at all surprisingly that many songs on Axes still very closely resembles early Stereolab -- albeit minus the dreamy Laetitia-sung vocals but with the addition of Susman's oft-peculiar style of vocalizing and some very empassioned piano. The album's highlight by far is also its centerpiece. The sixth track "Gone Darker" is all lengthy, slow, atmospheric moodiness composed around the sound of a passing train. The engine's propulsive churn clearly inspired the album as a whole. As we've come to expect from Electrelane's releases, there's usually one song that sticks out as the album's black sheep, and while the 'train song' is sure in the running for that honor, it's the eighth free jazz-y improv track "Business Or Otherwise" that truly fits the bill. Recorded by Steve Albini, the whole record recorded in one take, live, as if they were playing a show. Cool.
No, the title isn't referring to the techno sort of Grime! This is the fourth album from the Swedish power-metal troupe, who if they DJed would certainly play tracks by Metal Church, Yngwie's Rising Force, and Judas Priest, not Dizzee Rascal. If you know who they are, by now you're either a fan of Falconer mainman Stefan Weinerhall's distinctive guitar work and '80s inspired, storm-the-castle-style of metal songsmithery, or this just isn't your sort of thing. But if you haven't heard 'em before and do think you might be interested, we'd suggest checking out one of their other albums, their self-titled debut perhaps, or follow-up Chapters From A Vale Forlorn, before this one. Fans, though, will find that Grime Vs. Grandeur's got all the usual Falconer sing-along theatrics and folky bits. Weinerhall's guitar playing -- his medieval riffs and melodies -- remains individual and recognizable, something quite unusual in a genre that's often so, uh, generic. He's to be applauded for that. The wailing vocalist -- the kind of Euro power-metal belter who can (and does) rhyme "rose" with "overdose" -- isn't so distinctive, but he gets the job done though. Overall, what we've got here is another Falconer album, and you probably know if you need one or not. Cheesy? Definitely, sure. And this could be their cheesiest. But they're still a better band than many in this genre, for some of us (Allan and Andee) quite the guilty pleasure.
We've been loving the sweet, lush and lilting sounds of the Trembling Blue Stars for ages now, but we had no idea until recently that TBS frontman Bobby Wratton was also responsible for the genius twee pop of the Field Mice. From 1989 to 1991,the Field Mice were the jewel in the legendary Sarah Records' pop crown, making three records and a handful of singles, of some of the most gorgeously effervescent indie jangle pop ever. Super twee and fey, dreamy and drifty, with crystalline fingerpicked guitar, moody melancholy melodies, over shuffling electronic beats, simple acoustic drumming, wandering basslines, otherworldly female vocals, loads of precious indie jangle and of course Wratton's reverb drenched, dreamy soft boy vocals. Even a cursory listen reveals that certain modern bands (Belle And Sebastian anyone?) owe everything they are to these long forgotten musical rodents. So obviously, fans of Belle and Sebastian, who aren't already hoarding secret stashes of long lost Sarah singles, will be in swirling soft pop heaven, but folks who like stuff like Felt, Durutti Column, the Smiths, Trembling Blue Stars (obviously), Unrest, Teenage Fanclub, The Decemberists, Arcade Fire and other similar sorts of quirky blissed out pop shimmer should most definitely check out the Field Mice. This cd reissue contains For Keeps, their final album originally released in 1991, with all the tracks from the singles September's Not So Far Away and Missing the Moon. By the time For Keeps was released, the Field Mice had expanded to a five piece, and sounded like it, with big arrangements and lush production, extended drone-y jams and blissed out ambient jangle, definitely setting the stage for Belle And Sebastian and a legion of other twee pop outfits to come...
We've been loving the sweet, lush and lilting sounds of the Trembling Blue Stars for ages now, but we had no idea until recently that TBS frontman Bobby Wratton was also responsible for the genius twee pop of the Field Mice. From 1989 to 1991, the Field Mice were the jewel in the legendary Sarah Records' pop crown, making three records and a handful of singles, of some of the most gorgeously effervescent indie jangle pop ever. Super twee and fey, dreamy and drifty, with crystalline fingerpicked guitar, moody melancholy melodies, over shuffling electronic beats, simple acoustic drumming, wandering basslines, otherworldly female vocals, loads of precious indie jangle and of course Wratton's reverb drenched, dreamy soft boy vocals. Even a cursory listen reveals that certain modern bands (Belle And Sebastian anyone?) owe everything they are to these long forgotten musical rodents. So obviously, fans of Belle and Sebastian, who aren't already hoarding secret stashes of long lost Sarah singles, will be in swirling soft pop heaven, but folks who like stuff like Felt, Durutti Column, the Smiths, Trembling Blue Stars (obviously), Unrest, Teenage Fanclub, The Decemberists, Arcade Fire and other similar sorts of quirky blissed out pop shimmer should most definitely check out the Field Mice.
Skywriting was the Field Mice's second album originally released in June 1990. This 2cd reissue includes that lp in its entirety as well as all the tracks from the EPs The Autumn Store and So Said Kay, two rare comp tracks and three unreleased tracks.
Skywriting found the Field Mice stretching out a bit occasionally displaying influences from the then burgeoning dance / ambient scene, with sequenced rhythms, samples, and almost funky rhythms, all mixed in and amongst more classic and timeless sweet pop songsmithery.
We've been loving the sweet, lush and lilting sounds of the Trembling Blue Stars for ages now, but we had no idea until recently that TBS frontman Bobby Wratton was also responsible for the genius twee pop of the Field Mice. From 1989 to 1991,the Field Mice were the jewel in the legendary Sarah Records' pop crown, making three records and a handful of singles, of some of the most gorgeously effervescent indie jangle pop ever. Super twee and fey, dreamy and drifty, with crystalline fingerpicked guitar, moody melancholy melodies, over shuffling electronic beats, simple acoustic drumming, wandering basslines, otherworldly female vocals, loads of precious indie jangle and of course Wratton's reverb drenched, dreamy soft boy vocals. Even a cursory listen reveals that certain modern bands (Belle And Sebastian anyone?) owe everything they are to these long forgotten musical rodents. So obviously, fans of Belle and Sebastian, who aren't already hoarding secret stashes of long lost Sarah singles, will be in swirling soft pop heaven, but folks who like stuff like Felt, Durutti Column, the Smiths, Trembling Blue Stars (obviously), Unrest, Teenage Fanclub, The Decemberists, Arcade Fire and other similar sorts of quirky blissed out pop shimmer should most definitely check out the Field Mice.
Snowball was the Field Mice's debut album, originally released in 1989 as a 10" mini lp. This cd reissue also includes all the tracks from the first three singles as well as a rare compilation track. Snowball is maybe the weirdest of the bunch, with all that sweet jangle and shimmery pop glimmer, but structured around occasional drone-y almost krautrock like rhythms, brief glimpses of studio whirr and swoosh, and once in a while extended hypnotic bliss outs. At its root though, it's still simple and sweet, dreamy dreamy pop.
For their installment in Azuli Records' Late Night Tales series, Wayne Coyne & Co. have apparently rummaged through their personal record collections and picked out eighteen of their faves. It's somewhat perplexingly and a tiny bit disappointing though 'cause there aren't really any big surprises nor any odd obscurities. The biggest surprise is in just how safe a selection it is -- sorta like one of those old 'As Seen On TV! K-Tel Greatest Hits' compilations. Okay, maybe it's not *that* predictable or mainstream, but see for yourself... Bjork, Radiohead, Nick Drake, Sebadoh, Chemical Brothers, Chris Bell, Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, Psychedelic Furs, Chameleons, Love And Rockets, Roxy Music, Lush, Miles Davis, Mice Parade, Alfie, Faust and 10CC! While this comp does stir up fond memories of those good ol' songs, we might've expected the Lips' to take this opportunity to share some more off-the-radar listening treats by including a couple of challenging curve balls in the mix. In fact, the only things here that comes remotely close to curve balls are Faust's "It's A Bit Of A Pain" and 10CC's "I'm Not In Love". That said, 'Lips fans will surely welcome the band's own contribution to the lot which appears halfway through the album. It's their cover of The White Stripes' tune "Seven Nation Army" (apparently this is the exclusive release of this song on cd, but you might also be able to find it on an unrelated limited edition 7"). A final added bonus on this volume of the Late Night Tales series is the second of five clips from multi-faceted Scotsman David Shrigley's Bits And Bobs.
Not to be confused with the *other* band called Forest also being reviewed this list, here we have one of several recent reissues by the entity that we usually refer to as the black metal Forest, who hail from Russia. You may recall us praising this Forest's self-titled album a couple of years ago, likening it to a blend of the primitive Darkthrone/Burzum/Weakling style of black metal and the Jewelled Antler psych-improv-folk-drone aesthetic. Foredooming The Hope For Eternity dates from 1998 and it's certainly also a trance-inducing Darkthroneathon. Not exceptionally original, but exceptionally good for the genre. Raspy screams, buzzing guitars, drums beating a constant, almost static thwap-thwap-thwap. Forest's minor key laments make a virtue of monotony. I love it at low volumes, as a purely background drone...or, playing it loud, it becomes an all-encompassing sonic cocoon. And that would be good enough to sate our raw, old-school black metal needs. But, being Forest, there's more... two lengthy unlisted tracks at the end of the disc which contribute something a little different to the proceedings. The first is a sort of an extension of the last listed track, with the drums receeding in the mix, revealing a beautifully majestic strummy drone, sounding not unlike Earth gone black metal! That's followed by another ten minute bonus track that adds moaning, wordless vocal chant. "Ah-aaah..." So very epic, and almost Swans-ish, looping more distortion and folkiness. Definitely an interesting, effective band within (and sometimes without) the confines of the tradition to which they aspire. (And too let us praise the beautiful cover painting -- oh those purples! -- though there's no need for the excess border-graphics.)
Ok, this is a black metal band, but non-metallers into the improv-drone sounds of the Jewelled Antler collective, Richard Youngs/Simon Wickham-Smith and the like should keep reading!
Not to be confused with the other Forest we've raved about (the psychedelic British folk band from thirty years ago), *this* Forest is a Russian black metal outfit, and a pretty good one belonging to the raw, primitive, corpse-painted end of the genre. The first four tracks on here consist of blasting, frozen Darkthrone worship, keeping alive the cult spirit that so few bands today still possess -- maybe because those tracks were actually recorded in 1996. Malevolent, majestic pagan metal full of Burzumic mayhem. Fans of this vein of true, trancey black metal darkness will be pleased. And if that was all that was on this disc we'd think it was cool. But then comes the fifth and final track, a surprise twenty-minute opus called "Winter Howl" taken from a 1994 rehearsal tape. Suddenly Forest isn't so obviously black metal at all, they've entered a psych-drone realm that's more akin to the aforementioned Jewelled Antler stuff (Thuja, The Birdtree, etc) or Taj Mahal Travellers or Reynols or Amon Duul's krautrock jams, still as forest-y and primitive as the preceding metal songs though. A wavering whispy wordless vocal winds over a bed of lost, primal percussion and haunting washes of mild feedback. Simple melody lines on guitar wander through the increasing haze, with deeper vocals providing additional layers of drone. If you really heard this in a forest you'd be mesmerized and scared, but it's really nice and pretty (in a damaged way) when heard at home...pretty to us anyway, dunno if Kaldrad and Dagorath meant it to be so! The vocals, until they get a little more metal-ly, totally remind us of the bliss-out singing by British folk experimentalist Richard Youngs or Jewelled Antler's pop soul Jason Honea. If Finnish avant-forest-folk folks like Avarus and Kemialliset Ystavat or the Jewelled Antler collective decided to make black metal, this is what's we'd imagine it would sound like! (Actually, there IS an upcoming black metal-inspired release from Jewelled Antler, a 3" cd-r by a group they call Tomes, but Tomes takes an even more subtle approach than "Winter Howl"...look for that here at AQ soon!) Meanwhile, on the black metal side, fans of Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Caacrinolas, Potentiam, and other weird ones should dig this track, along with Forest's other more typical black metal sounds. Recommended.
It's been five years since Robert Forster and Grant McLennan reformed their beloved band, and with their latest full length Oceans Apart they show no signs of stopping. Their music is as great as ever. If you really need proof, you need only give this album a spin next to the recently re-issued early Go-Betweens classics such as 16 Lovers Lane. Although the two gents' songwriting and singing styles have always been quite different from one another (and great on their own when in solo mode), when combined the chemistry is pure pop magic. They sing from and to both the heart and mind, penning some of the most sincere, articulate and romantic pop songs around. Who else could fit Dostoyevsky's name in their lyrics? Well, maybe Robyn Hitchcock, who might be the one artist closest to them in style, depth, wit and charm. The Go-Betweens' records including this one are something you can always rely on to offer light to your darker times and places.
Note: the first pressing of this cd includes a bonus disc of six songs recorded live at the Barbican in London last year.
It's weird to think about the world before the Internet. Little pockets of bands in out of the way places, producing wild and wonderful music, that outside of a few tape traders and cool record stores just didn't get heard. In some ways the advent of immediate world wide communication has been a wellspring of amazing music, since now, some kid who records in his bedroom in Finland, can now be heard by anyone in the world. Anywhere. Any time. The downside is of course the proliferation of bands whose material maybe didn't need worldwide exposure, music that was just fine where it was, in the bedroom or the basement. Thankfully this particular release is a definite example of the former. Australia has produced some killer rock over the years, from AC/DC to Radio Birdman to Lubricated Goat (one of Allan and Andee's favorites) to the Dirty Three to more obscure noiserock bands like Budd or the Dumb And The Ugly or Primitive Calculators. A few lists back we reviewed an awesome disc by the band Whitehorse, whose epic sludge-y, drone-y dirge definitely hit the Sunn 0))) / Earth / Corrupted / Khanate spot. The guys in Whitehorse suggested we check out another Aussie outift (also from Melbourne) a two guys and a gal trio called the Grey Daturas, who only a few weeks later just showed up in our store with a box full of cds, about to embark on their first US tour (some of the dates with Sunn 0))), see elsewhere on this list for tour dates). And while the Daturas are indeed heavy and droney, their sound is less slow motion sludge and more blown out fuzzy psych rock. A blurry druggy mix of Hawkwind, the Dead C, Comets On Fire, Residual Echoes, Dead Meadow and Bardo Pond. The Daturas' sound is all over the map, from churning, throbbing fuzzdrug churn, with squealing feedback and choppy uneven riffing, to drifting dreamy stripped down post rock, all careening wildly between thick swaths of super overdriven psych fuzz, and drenched in crumbly distortion and all manner of wah. When they kick out the jams, it's fierce and mesmerizing, pounding and relentless, with simple propulsive percussion and spaced out swirl. Often stretching out into head nodding Krautrock jams, spacious and hypnotic. When the storms calm and the band drifts off and just sort of meanders, we're reminded of Codeine and other like minded practitioners of drowsy, druggy slow core. Still noisy, but mellow and intense, brooding and subtly aggressive.
The Grey Daturas are all instrumental which as you probably know we tend to dig, since there's nothing like a bad singer to ruin a perfectly good band, but there's always the risk of bands with no vocalists to be really really boring. But because a lot of the Daturas' tunes are improvised, and the band is willing to take all kinds of musical chances (they often switch instruments, sometimes perform as a duo with no drummer, etc...) it never gets boring, instead it becomes the perfect mix of droning free rock, kick ass instrumental post rock, buzzing druggy psych and even occasional blasts of full on metal. Mix in some cool song titles: "The Hanging Man Is No Peacock", "Force Is A Weapon Of The Weak", as well as some oddly political song titles (but more sort of Sixties politics): "For Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale", "Night Of The Barricade: Paris 1968", a gorgeous washed out black, brown and grey cardboard sleeve, and a totally kick ass live show (they performed admirably with a handful of fill-in drummers here, even teaming up with art noise outfit the Yellow Swans for one show), and you've got one of our favorite new bands / releases. AND they're recording a new record right here in SF when they get back from tour...yay!
We initially thought this to be another of the menagerie of wildlife named artists associated with Animal Collective, but they aren't. While they do tread in and around a similar lo-fi, art-folk trail as A.C., their travels take a gentler pace through prettier passages. So hushed, introspective and slightly woozy with brittle male vocals, delicate chimes, an occasional guitar strum, barely-there drones and mysterious wisps of texture. The percussion sounds as though it's being tapped and shaken out on random twigs, pebbles and pods. Check out the seventh song "Fix It", a particular highlight on the album. A great rainy day record!
Hair Police bring us a fucked-up sludgey noise jam in the Wolf Eyes/1996-era Black Dice vein. Not bad, but not really anything new sounding. There's no dynamicism on Drawn Dead, though maybe that is the point. If you're a noise enthusiast you could be interested in its abrasive, suffocating tape sludge. Or not. It's possible that their newer recording, Constantly Terrifed (scheduled for release soon on Troubleman) will be more... uh, better?
Clatter For Control is the third potent full length by this unconventional viola and percussion duo from the Godspeed You Black Emperor clan. Their passionate, aggressive music once again easily draws comparisons to The Ex. From the first few measures of the very first track they charge forth from the crowd. Their fevered performance is made more so by the addition of electric bass played by Harris Newman (also of Hrsta and Sackville) and 'vocals' screamed into the viola's pickup -- truly generating enough imposing energy to knock the wind out of you. The eighth track "Fuck This Place" is as bluntly forceful as its title, ending with a blistering squall. When it ceases all that you're left with are a subdued scattering of percussion and solitary bowed notes. Taken separately each interlude is stunning, and when combined the effects are breathtaking. Recommended!
More Roy Harper for you, folks! We've been importing the hard-to-find reissued albums of the veteran British folk-rock singer-songwriter (always a cult figure, who shoulda been huge) and reviewing our favorites one by one. The first two Harper cds we listed were from the very early '70s -- his fourth and fifth albums, Flat Baroque And Berserk and Stormcock. But now we're gonna take a foray further along into the Roy Harper discography to feature album number ten, Bullinamingvase from 1977.
'Tis a full-band affair, and one that, as with quite a few of Harper's records, features a number of famous musicians as guests -- even though he never enjoyed much in the way of chart success, he was always being a big favorite among the rock royalty of the era. Notable among 'em this time are guitarist Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, Ronnie Lane of the Faces, and both Paul and Linda McCartney of Wings. And if you're a Wings fan (we are!) you will also immediately recognize the guitar of Jimmy McCulloch. You can't miss it. There's a trademark wavery sort of lick he plays that you've definitely heard before in Wings songs. (Sadly, McCulloch died just two years after this album was released, at the ripe old age of 26, due to drugs.)
Fans of Stormcock know that Harper is one for the epic, and certainly the twenty minute opus "One Of Those Days In England Parts 2-10" is indeed "the major event on the record", as Harper's typically digressive and poetic liner notes say. Yet the other wonderful cuts here with single-digit running times shouldn't be overlooked. Fragile, emotional tracks like "These Last Days" and "The Naked Flame", (songs that show that Harper, though a romantic, had decidedly realistic views on relationships), alongside the much more rambunctious "Watford Gap", about a greasy spoon frequented by touring musicans in England, make the whole album something to savor.
The single version of "One Of Those Days...", also included here, actually became the closest thing to a pop hit that Harper ever had. And indeed Bullinamingvase was Harper's most successful album to date (ever?), reaching number 25 in the UK charts. But despite all that he had a falling out with his record label and didn't release another album for three years... He's still going strong today, though, and maybe next time 'round we'll list his brand new anti-Bush, anti-Blair single!!
