Who has a giant ol' soft spot for really good power pop? We sure do!! And this LA band are definitely speaking our language. Influenced by the Brit excellence of The Buzzcocks and The Jam, The Adored follow in the punchy footsteps of mighty aQ fave popsters Silver Sun, Fallout Boy and Seattle's sadly defunct Pure Joy. We particularly were suckers for the vocals which bore a striking resemblance to the latter band's lead singer Rusty Willoughby. Anyways, if a heapin' serving of buoyant harmonies, snappy hooks and crunchy electric guitars are what you crave, this band has 'em all in abundant supply. Absolute fun!
Here's the expensive import, for those that can't wait 'til this comes out domestically, in January we believe... At the crossroads of Kylie Minogue, Bebel Gilberto, Puffy Ami Yumi and Lady Sovereign sits this lady Ms Lily Allen. What does that mean? Sleek girlish fun, of course! Have to say though that the cover art made us a bit wary. With all the bling, lightning bolts and boomboxes it looks like it fell out of the pages of Vice Magazine. This is a candy-colored, gleeful tilt-a-whirl of an album! One weird listening moment came during the intro to the eighth song. We actually were expecting her to break into a little Cat Stevens, but she didn't. The tune "Littlest Things" does seem suspiciously infused with "Wild Life"-ness. It's almost as though she removed Stevens' vocals and lyrics and dropped her own over top. That oddness aside, ya gotta stick with her 'cause the flouncin' final track "Alfie" just might be the best! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!
This cassette just showed up in the mail one day, with a short note asking us if we wanted to sell it in the store. Hard to tell what it would sound like: band called Amort, two songs, cover image an oil painting of wild horses, very striking, but still no clear sonic picture. The tape came wrapped in a flyer, with the words "Slow end sonic destruction" printed in thick black letters across the top. Our first clue...
So we threw it on, and were first greeted with the sound of lilting piano, notes hanging suspended in wide open expanses of near silence, but soon that piano was joined by a slow lava like flow of glacial riffing, a downtuned low end thob, a la SUNNO))), Earth, Corrupted, but draped over a delicate slowcore background, then in came some incredibly low, gurgling vocals, and suddenly all was revealed to us, gloriously hauntingly beautiful slowcore sludge. The massive riffing and monstrous vocals, drift in and out, often leaving just a lilting minor key guitar, to gently pick out the melody, hushed and minimal, like some sort of super abstract post rock, before the guitars pour back in and the vocals croak forth, but even at its heaviest and sludgiest, it's strangely pretty, the melody a minor key lament, the sound more murky and muddy than pummeling and heavy, like Corrupted covering Low maybe... The tempo gets upped a notch or two, sounding like the band might lurch into full on rocking, but instead, the riff just loops over and over, becoming more of a rhythmic drone than an any sort of actual rock riff, eventually fading to black.
Side two creeps along similar ground, beginning with abstract minor key guitar figures, allowed to unfurl and drift through an empty space, joined by simple piano, before launching into a slow motion ambient doom, all burnt out guitar and reverb drenched vocals. Very reminiscent of the Tomb Of... cassette, a strange melding of abstract ambient piano and dirgey doom drenched sludge. The interesting thing about Amort is there are no drums, this is all just huge walls of guitar, harsh demonic vocals, and tinkling piano, on the second track, the guitar becomes weirdly harmonized, creating super tense harmonic melodies, like some displaced Iron Maiden lick, slowed down to 2 or 3 rpm. This track two sort of wanders back and forth between forlorn slow motion cabaret, just piano and undistorted guitar, and pummeling drone doom crush. But in the hands of Amort, they sound so perfect together. The ultimate post rock downer doom...
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!
OK, last list we dealt with the Frijid Pink, now here's another important example of early proto-heaviness for us to *finally* list on our site. And they too have a funny name -- Atomic Rooster! This album, from 1971 (natch), is probably their best and most significant (though their next LP In Hearing Of is also up there too). Death Walks Behind You was the band's second album, but their first with new drummer Paul Hammond and new guitarist John DuCann (aka John Cann), who had previously played in psych outfits Andromeda, The Attack, and others. He's best known though for his stint in Atomic Rooster -- though we really wish there were decent reissues available of his and Hammond's post-AR band Hard Stuff for us to list, they're one of proto-metal's best kept secrets! But while DuCann brings a lot to this album with his guitar playing and singing, the real star of the show remains organist and main songwriter Vincent Crane, who had founded the band originally in 1969 with his former Crazy World Of Arthur Brown bandmate Carl Palmer (who split from Atomic Rooster after their debut to join up with Emerson and Lake, y'know). Vincent Crane's Hammer horror Hammond organ and piano playing has a lot to do with this record's doomy quality. Though they never took it to the extreme that Black Sabbath did, Atomic Rooster -- and this album in particular, from its title and creepy William Blake cover painting to the gloomy, yet groovy music itself -- certainly made good use of the spooky/dark/evil/occult vibe that later became a staple of the heavy metal genre. Eight bleak and bombastic tracks here, laced with lots of that good ol' "hairy funk" as DJ Andy Votel would put it. As far as heavy duty organ-based prog/psych goes, you've got to give it up to Atomic Rooster!!
NB. this new digipack reissue is called Death Walks Behind You... PLUS on account of featuring four extra bonus tracks, BBC sessions most of 'em. So, twelve tracks total. Cool!
What else to say about Bathtub Shitter at this point? We've gushed and gushed in review after review. If you're a loyal AQ list reader, you probably know all there is to know about these guys. But for those of you who have somehow missed out on the goofy grind glory that is Bathtub Shitter, check the AQ website to read all about Japan's masters of shitgrind! But in a nutshell, BS are a whirling blast of super technical downtuned metallic grind, with plenty of groove and surf rock (!) and any other weird musical bits they choose to incorporate. Fast and furious and sometimes funny. A buzzing blasting metallic maelstrom, topped with some of the coolest, weirdest vocals EVER! A grunting guttural death metal growl, gurgling and demonic, but that in the blink of an eye, can suddenly switch into hysterical falsetto, like a screeching cheerleader, or a yapping lap dog. So weird, but somehow so goddamn perfect too. They are Japanese after all, and seemingly any idea that sounds too ridiculous or dumb, can be pulled off by a Japanese band without even breaking a sweat.
Shitter At Salzgitter was recorded in Germany back in 2004 and features tons of BS 'hits': "War Of World Is Words", "Bathtub Shitter", "Fuck Hip Raper" and the brilliantly titled "Everybody Has The Wet"!
Nothing dramatically different, just some alternate versions of your Shitter faves as well as a handful of killer tunes you probably haven't heard. Between song banter is always the best part of a live record, and while BS keep it to a minimum, it's cool to hear the songs introduced in either haltingly polite English or raspy monster growls, sometimes both!! Rumor is these guys will make it over here this year so we can experience this stuff LIVE!! We can't wait.
ALL HAIL THE 'SHITTER!!!
Here's a new five song ep from Balkan gypsy music revisionists Beirut! Mainman Zach Condon has picked right up from where his luminous debut album Gulag Orkestar left off... and he's assembled a full band in the process! You might recall that A Hawk And A Hacksaw's Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trosk provided musical support on the album. This ep is comprised of four new songs and an alternate full band version of "Scenic World" (which originally appeared on the album). If you dig the abovementioned A Hawk And A Hacksaw, you're probably already familiar with their pals and collaborators Beirut (and vice versa). If not, what're you waiting for? Wonderful stuff!
Way back in 1999, the first time we ever heard them, we referred to Benighted Leams as "possibly the most retarded black metal band ever"! A level of dementedness and fucked up-ness by which all others would be measured. Leams mainman A.K. took umbrage, wondering why we would possibly describe his band that way, and how such a review could be expected to sell records?
Funny thing is, we sold tons and tons, Benighted Leams becoming THE sort of AQ black metal band. Gloriously damaged and demented, fucked up and oh so weird. Perhaps 'retarded' was not the ideal word choice, but we were trying to capture the essence of BL's then-sound, a sort of stumbling, struggling WTF black metal buzz. The drums were programmed and off time, often too loud, the guitars and vocals were alternately buried in the mix, and ear shreddingly loud. BUT! It was one of those perfect moments, where all of those various accidents and musical mistakes combined to create something vastly superior to its constituent parts. Still to this day, one of the greatest, weirdest, most inspired outsider bands EVER.
So here we are, almost 8 years, and a few Leams discs later, when we got word of a brand new Benighted Leams!!! Holy Shit were we excited!! A new Leams on the way. We had been hovering around the front door waiting for the mailman like kids at Christmas, when the day suddenly came and there was a big ol' package for us (and you!) from the UK, and inside we knew, lurked the new Leams!!
A lot has changed in the Benighted Leams camp -- no struggling damaged fucked up black metal stumble anymore, nope, the new Leams is thick and heavy, relentless, and HUGE sounding, like maybe it was recorded in a real studio, the guitars are massive and crunchy, the riffs killer and grim, the drums could still be programmed, but they sound much more organic, settled perfectly in the mix, a swirling, mostly midtempo blackness, with brief bursts of glorious blasting buzz. The vocals are buried, alternating with bits of found sound and purloined speeches. On first listen the untrained ear might not necessarily realize that this was Benighted Leams, but we know! There's no disguising the gloriously bizarre blackness that is Benighted leams. From the album title, Obombrid Welkins, to the song titles, "Kevin Macdonald's Theory Of Eurocentralism As A Group Evolution Strategy", "There Descends A Nauseating Dampness", "Alopaecia", to the strange but gorgeous design and layout, complete with a photo to accompany each track's lyrics (including a shot of a head obviously afflicted with "Alopaecia"), to the murky band photos (one half of BL is female apparently!), to the music! Drone drenched black metal, relentless and hypnotic, single riffs repeated over and over, simple and mournful and mesmerizing, minor key melodies tangled up in fuzzed out buzz, the vocals and samples making the songs sound ghostly and haunting.
Definitely not the weirdest Benighted Leams record, but possibly the best! As with all things Leams, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
It seems that Maurizio Bianchi will collaborate with anybody these days. We can recall the Italian Industrial pioneer working with the likes of Aube, Telepherique, Land Use, Telepherique, Hitoshi Kojo (whose M.B. collaboration Epidemic Symphony was definitely one the forgotten gems of 2006), and now TH26, an Italian project with only a handful of obscure recordings dating back to the mid-'90s. Many of Bianchi's contemporary collaborations have resulted in teeth-gnashing drones reflecting the existentially torn metaphors of Bianchi's work from the early '80s (which for our money is miles above the work of Whitehouse, Merzbow, and Ramleh back in the day). But in working with TH26, Bianchi appears to be expressing an entirely new facet of his musical vocabulary, that of rhythm. Arkaeo Planum begins with a skittering post-Autechre breakbeat augmented with fragments of smoldering noise strewn about its rhythmic underbelly. Bianchi and TH26 slowly dive into subterranean depths on the next track which features a much more lugubrious crawl for rhythm, drenched in a reverb that expands into an eerie network of Schniztler drones, thudding piano, and fizzing pixilations channelled into focused beams of searing noise. If anything, the tracks on Arkaeo Planum might parallel the final works of Coil with their synthetic sourced sidereal, dark overtures...
Finally! The return of our favorite parrot fronted grind metal outfit, Hatebeak! And as if realizing that a bird squawking along to death metal might be a one trick pony, the band has gone and mixed things up, turning their jokey avian death metal into something way more weird and damaged and in the long run, an even better (and more musically complex) joke.
It's still high concept: Waldo the parrot is lead vocalist for the band Hatebeak, a play on the band Hatebreed we can only assume. This time, the cover is some horrible creature (Cthulhu we presume) with a parrot perched on its shoulder. Titled "The Thing That Should Not Beak" coupled with the track "Hellbent For Feathers" (Metallica and Judas Priest jokes respectively for the metallically dim out there) and the Hatebeak logo is done in the style of the Relapse Records logo... it's all very funny, metal nerd inside jokes, but the thing is, as a band, Hatebeak totally shred!
The two tracks are bookended by what ends up being a parrot prank call, but in between it's raging, complex, super technical grinding death metal. Another one of those bands that had they ditched the whole bird on vocals angle, could probably be huge! And this time it's not just regular old bird squawks and squeaks, Waldo's 'vocals' are bizarre, obviously overdubbed, they go from strange almost talking, to screeches, to weird guttural almost death metal vocals, all tangled up amidst insanely brutal, super stop start grinding metal mayhem. Awesome!
On the B side are Swedish goof grinders Birdflesh, chosen for their monicker as much as their sound we'd assume, but sonically, they are the perfect match, a whole bunch of songs crammed onto their side, fast and furious, technical and brutal, and just a little bit goofy, like their bizarre, costumed band photos on the cover.
Pressed on swirled lime green vinyl and as with most things like this, extremely limited!
We've all been going nuts for Southern's Latitudes series, super limited releases from Ginnungagap, Shit And Shine, Ariel Pink, Grails, Paradise Island, and elsewhere on this list, new ones from Magik Markers and Circle! Well the fine folks at Southern have decided to press a few of those Latitudes discs on vinyl! The first of which is Fingering The Devil from the Sun City Girls' Sir Richard Bishop, in his solo guitar Improvika mode. Very much in the spirit of the current American Primitive / neo Appalachia sound, exploring similar territory as Jack Rose, Stephen Basho-Jungans, Charlie Schmidt and of course John Fahey, but on these improvised tracks, Bishop injects a healthy dose of flamenco which is sort of surprising. Not that Bishop isn't well versed in various musics of the world, he most definitely is as any number of SCG records will attest to, but it still sounds a little surprising in this context, but the result is truly gorgeous. Moody and emotional, dark and dense, dreamy and lyrical. Just Bishop and a steel string guitar unfurling dense tangles of intricate fingerpicking, as well as slow contemplative melodies, all rich with Spanish flavor. Occasionally Bishop goes for an Eastern raga like vibe instead, and ends up sounding closer to UK guitarist James Blackshaw or Rose at his most drone-y. So so lovely indeed!
Comes packaged in a cool diecut sleeve, a variation on the immediately recognizable Latitudes cd packaging, although this time, white on black instead of white on brown. Includes the same insert as the cd. Pressed on cool grey splatter vinyl. And of course, SUPER SUPER LIMITED!!!
The Boats come sailing back with their third full length, and their music is as lovely as ever. Tomorrow Time commences with an unfurling of soft droning veils embroidered with delicate glitch. Drowsy processed vocals slow drift along stepping gracefully around the raindrop chimes and piano keys. In stark contrast to all of this aural dreaminess are the surprisingly negative toned song titles. Geez, they're so downright harsh and jarring when taken in combination with the sweet sweet music that you might want to avert your eyes, and simply let your ears soak in the sounds.
Another 'enhanced single' to add to your ever-mushrooming Bonnie Prince Billy library! Who came up with that term anyways?! Enhanced!? Its dictionary definition is "to increase or improve in value, quality, desirability, or attractiveness". Sounds appealing, if somewhat subjective, doesn't it? Here it simply means "includes a video".
Anyways, the title track "Lay & Love" comes from BPB's most recent full length The Letting Go. It features lovely guest vocals by Faun Fables' Dawn McCarthy. That tune is accompanied by two non-album tracks "Senor" and "Going To Acapulco". No big bells and whistles nor surprises, just ol' reliable Oldham goodness that needs no 'enhancing'.
Vice magazine may be most (in)famous for their magazine, especially the always enjoyable Do's & Don't's, but you've also got to hand it to their record label arm for championing the one and only Boredoms on this side of the Pacific. First they brought us the US edition of the Boredom's latest album Seadrum/House Of Sun, now they're reissuing the semi-legendary Super Roots series! So far, installments 1, 3 and 5. Eventually 6 and beyond (we hear tell that SR 9 is currently in the works, over in Japan). Er, what about 2 and 4 you're wondering? Well, Super Roots 2 was a limited edition promotional 3" cd ep only available with purchase of the Japanese release of Chocolate Synthesizer, and for the life of us we can't recall what the deal was (or wasn't) with Super Roots 4, actually we don't think it ever existed!
Confused? Well if you're not a hardcore Bore-fan, you might not even know what the heck the Super Roots discs are all about. Well, they were (are) sort of a series of between-album experiments wherein the Bore-crew goes off to explore some weird tangents... as hard as it is to imagine anything MORE experimental and weird than "regular" Boredoms albums themselves!!
And only Super Roots 1 and 6 were ever previously released in the USA, back when the Boredoms were still, in some Lollapalooza related hangover, seen by major label Reprise as being a reasonable investment! So 3 and 5, having only been available before as expensive Japanese imports, are going to be new to a lot of folks... and it's about time you heard 'em!! Seriously, if you're into any sort of psychedelic drone excess from the underground bands that we're constantly freaking on and on about some limited edition cd-r by, or love love love you some Boris, not to mention the likes of the Boredom's own kraut-drone masterpiece Super Ae and subsequent albums, you're gonna NEED to hear Super Roots 3 and Super Roots 5, they'll make you feel GOOD.
Oh and what about Super Roots 1? SR1 first came out in 1993. It's pretty short, just over 19 minutes, and features 14 brief tracks, in the spastic, chaotic style of "old" Boredoms, before they got all tranced-out and cosmic (a change we feel the Super Roots series was the catalyst for). But this was at the beginning (Super Roots wasn't a series yet, this is actually titled Super Roots, without the 1), and it really did sound like their "roots" -- lots of percussive bashing, fits of screaming and yelping, ridiculous horn tooting, and suchlike craziness. The Boredoms we knew and loved, but had heard plenty at the time. So listening to it now, without Soul Discharge, Pop Tatari, or Chocolate Synthesizer as fresh in our minds, it's sounding pretty nifty! A nice reminder of the variety of wacky pleasures the Boredoms used to bring in their "youth".
Vice magazine may be most (in)famous for their magazine, especially the always enjoyable Do's & Don't's, but you've also got to hand it to their record label arm for championing the one and only Boredoms on this side of the Pacific. First they brought us the US edition of the Boredom's latest album Seadrum/House Of Sun, now they're reissuing the semi-legendary Super Roots series! So far, installments 1, 3 and 5. Eventually 6 and beyond (we hear tell that SR 9 is currently in the works, over in Japan). Er, what about 2 and 4 you're wondering? Well, Super Roots 2 was a limited edition promotional 3" cd ep only available with purchase of the Japanese release of Chocolate Synthesizer, and for the life of us we can't recall what the deal was (or wasn't) with Super Roots 4, actually we don't think it ever existed!
Confused? Well if you're not a hardcore Bore-fan, you might not even know what the heck the Super Roots discs are all about. Well, they were (are) sort of a series of between-album experiments wherein the Bore-crew goes off to explore some weird tangents... as hard as it is to imagine anything MORE experimental and weird than "regular" Boredoms albums themselves!!
And only Super Roots 1 and 6 were ever previously released in the USA, back when the Boredoms were still, in some Lollapalooza related hangover, seen by major label Reprise as being a reasonable investment! So 3 and 5, having only been available before as expensive Japanese imports, are going to be new to a lot of folks... and it's about time you heard 'em!! Seriously, if you're into any sort of psychedelic drone excess from the underground bands that we're constantly freaking on and on about some limited edition cd-r by, or love love love you some Boris, not to mention the likes of the Boredom's own kraut-drone masterpiece Super Ae and subsequent albums, you're gonna NEED to hear Super Roots 3 and Super Roots 5, they'll make you feel GOOD.
Super Roots 3, specifically: some, uh, "hard bore", um, "bore core" here from 1994!! It's just one track, that might be titled "Hard Trance Away (Karaoke Of Cosmos)". Or maybe that's just a random slogan on the sleeve, it's hard to tell. In any case, the track is a doozy! Slightly over a half hour of raging, relentless, rhythmic chug, followed by a few minutes of silence. It's pretty amazing, the monomaniacal, minimalist, thrashing energy of this all-instrumental punk-metal gallop, you can imagine that the floor of the studio was shin-deep in sweat by the time they were done recording. Ultimately psychedelic in its repetitiousness, this piece seems always to be striving to attain some higher level, that eventually you realize they (and you, the listener) have reached long ago. Definitely the sort of thing (in a similar but different way as Super Roots 5 as well) that fans of Boris at their most extreme would dig... and thus quite recommended!!
Vice magazine may be most (in)famous for their magazine, especially the always enjoyable Do's & Don't's, but you've also got to hand it to their record label arm for championing the one and only Boredoms on this side of the Pacific. First they brought us the US edition of the Boredom's latest album Seadrum/House Of Sun, now they're reissuing the semi-legendary Super Roots series! So far, installments 1, 3 and 5. Eventually 6 and beyond (we hear tell that SR 9 is currently in the works, over in Japan). Er, what about 2 and 4 you're wondering? Well, Super Roots 2 was a limited edition promotional 3" cd ep only available with purchase of the Japanese release of Chocolate Synthesizer, and for the life of us we can't recall what the deal was (or wasn't) with Super Roots 4, actually we don't think it ever existed!
Confused? Well if you're not a hardcore Bore-fan, you might not even know what the heck the Super Roots discs are all about. Well, they were (are) sort of a series of between-album experiments wherein the Bore-crew goes off to explore some weird tangents... as hard as it is to imagine anything MORE experimental and weird than "regular" Boredoms albums themselves!!
And only Super Roots 1 and 6 were ever previously released in the USA, back when the Boredoms were still, in some Lollapalooza related hangover, seen by major label Reprise as being a reasonable investment! So 3 and 5, having only been available before as expensive Japanese imports, are going to be new to a lot of folks... and it's about time you heard 'em!! Seriously, if you're into any sort of psychedelic drone excess from the underground bands that we're constantly freaking on and on about some limited edition cd-r by, or love love love you some Boris, not to mention the likes of the Boredom's own kraut-drone masterpiece Super Ae and subsequent albums, you're gonna NEED to hear Super Roots 3 and Super Roots 5, they'll make you feel GOOD.
Here's the lowdown on Super Roots 5... Like Super Roots 3, this is also just one track. But it's about twice as long -- over an hour! Originally released in 1995, Super Roots 5 begins with one of those soft-loud potential heart attacks (at about five minutes in, when Eye shouts "Go!" and the volume EXPLODES) that Boris and Corrupted have also utilized to good effect. From then on, it's a MASSIVE sea of sonic waves, crashing and crossing, surging and rarely slacking. Foreshadowing the heavily percussive attack of later "Voordoms" efforts, a big part of this seems to be cymbals, excited into a constant, shifting, shimmering drone... It's GORGEOUS. And mesmerizing. Something to surrender to, something that if it lasted hours, rather than "just" an hour, would elicit no complaints from us at all! Y'know how some of the Boredoms' recent output, and particularly their "Voordoms" live shows, have drawn comparisons to some sort of "extreme" drum circle? Well how 'bout with Super Roots 5, it's not a circle, but an infinitely heavy and dense dot?
Pretty much a Boredoms ESSENTIAL, this one, 'specially now that it's more affordable/available!
We thought we had heard the last of these Swedish musical miscreants with their Stigma Of The Ripper 7" on tUMULt a while back, but according to the band, these two tracks here are actually their last will and testament, the band have finally officially called it quits, with various members continuing on in their own perverse musical pursuits.
And a fitting way to end it. Nothing new or spectacularly different, just more of that murk, filthy, jazzy garage sludge we have come to know and love. A simple riff, doused in distortion and played through some beat up old amp, repeated over and over and over, mantra like, hypnotic and disturbing, the drums propulsive and motorik, a horn bleating and skronking within the murk and mire, while the vocals, delivered in a totally detached deadpan drawl, recount tales of fucking and sucking, rape and incest, and all manner of sexual depravity and ultra violence.
"Stinking Memory" is perfect Brainbombs, a simple riff, ultra fucked up lyrics, some damaged jazz skronk, all wrapped in a thick production of murky muddiness, and pounded out relentlessly, a damaged demented scuzzy filthy garage rock stomp. "Insects" is even better, taking the stomp of side 1 and blowing out the guitar even more, sounding impossible catchy while getting even filthier, every spare bit of space filled up with tangled scrabbling angular guitar solos, so convoluted and dense, they seem to just add another layer of noisy buzz to the proceedings.
God, we're gonna miss these guys...
LIMITED TO 377 COPIES!
NOW ON VINYL!
Here is the much anticipated reissue of Broken Social Scene's debut album. It's a much more stylistically even-keeled work than their highly acclaimed You Forgot It In People. More moody and post-rocky than its shimmery and poppy follow up. The atmosphere is mysterious and vaporous with interwoven electronic down tempo grooviness, shimmering guitar string plucking, and slinking basslines. A perfect late night drive album if your vehicle just happens to be a hovercraft that can handle the freeways as well as the ocean.
An absolutely timeless ageless folk music beauty!
If you fell in love with Ms Bunyan's Just Another Day album from 1970 (reissued recently on cd and lp!) as we did, you've probably been tingling with anticipation over the news that over three decades later she'd returned to the recording studio. Really, it's almost as though she never left. It's almost spooky! We caught a brief, but oh-so-pleasing glimpse of the present-day Vashti when she did an unexpected collaboration with Animal Collective earlier this year (the resulting recordings were released as a cdep titled "Prospect Hummer"). Now we get a full album's worth of her wonderfulness and she's joined by some youngsters named Joanna and Devendra. Recommended!
DVD of the live television performance on the great Austin City Limits series. While the '80s were a hard time for Cash, bouncing from one label to another and never getting the freedom and respect he so deserved, he still shined in the live setting.
In 2005 the city of Paris commissioned avant-composer and no-wave legend Rhys Chatham to orchestrate and conduct a piece to be played in the basilica of Sacre-Coeur, the largest church in France. Chatham took this amazing opportunity to have his piece A Crimson Grail performed for this first time. The piece calls for 400 electric guitars!!! In a Basilica!! Holy Shit!! Rhys Chatham and 400 electric guitars = get ready to be blasted by unrelenting noise, right? WRONG! Somehow Chatham manages to use this army of guitars to make one of his most beautiful and celestial pieces to date. The guitars come together to create a glistening wall of sound that had to make those 10,000 in attendance simply melt into their seats. Exciting to hear what could have been overblown bombast, and a flexing of too much guitar muscle turned into a subtle and shimmering work that creates space and tension and emotion and seeps right into your soul. Last year was chock full of great Chatham reissues, we couldn't get enough, so it's thrilling to start the new year not with a reissue, but a brand new piece as thrilling as anything Chatham has ever done. So totally stunning!
BRAND NEW CIRCLE ALBUM!!! TYRANT!! INCREDIBLY LIMITED LATEST INSTALLMENT IN THE LATITUDES SERIES!!! IT'S HERE!!!!
Okay, just wanted to get your attention. We've been waiting for this for a long, long time. As have many of you, we imagine. We've all been loving the Latitudes series of ultra limited releases from bands like Ginnungagap, Shit And Shine, the Grails, Ariel Pink, Sir Richard Bishop... so when we heard that Finland's gods of metallic hypno drone rock were going to do one, we were so psyched, and so we waited anxiously, but patiently, until finally, after months of waiting, they arrived, just a few days ago, and as if we even have to tell you, IT'S AWESOME!!!
But this declaration of awesomeness does require a bit more elaboration, as Circle have a wide variety of awesome sounds: murky propulsive modern day krautrock, wild guitar heavy NWOFHM proto-metal, extended ambient drones, loping mesmeric jazzy shuffle, it's really hard to know where the band will head next. As if it were too much to wish for, Tyrant, somehow manages to combine all of their disparate sounds into one practically perfect whole, and some of us are declaring this our favorite Circle record in ages (no mean feat, since their last one, Miljard, was fantastic, a Record Of The Week too). Three 15 minute tracks, each one a slow building epic, droning, dense, dark, hypnotic, but each with its own unique elements.
The opener, "Screaming Luovutus", is an endlessly looping space rock drone mantra, a relentlessly throbbing bassline, haunting little swirls of fluttering keyboard melody, little bits of guitar filigree, simple propulsive rhythmic shuffle, all woven into a endlessly throbbing krautrocky swirl, when suddenly over the top strange whispery demonic growls surface, super distorted, another layer of fuzzy sound, howling and whispering all ragged and harsh, almost like Circle covering Abruptum or a black metal Necks, if that makes any sense. Dizzying and weirdly heavy, a black ambient krautrock drone groove, if such a thing were possible. And if it were, you know Circle would be the ones, ahem, ARE the ones to make it happen.
The second track, with the very metal title "Steel Torment Warrior", is maybe the least metal of the batch. A super creepy, almost jazzy, soundscape, of muted rumble, bursts of super effected dubbed out drums, flurries of spaced out FX, hushed hissed vocals, splattery free jazz skitter, warbly, seasick guitar tangles all wrapped in a druggy blissy ambience. It's like a less propulsive Necks, a damaged jazzy shuffle looping into infinity, but twisted into a uniquely Circular shape.
The closer, with the even MORE metal title of "Amputation Crusade", is the grooviest and space rockiest of the three, a simple darkly melodic guitar figure, loops lazily above a slow slithery bassline and a super laid back, barely there rhythmic shuffle, like Can or Faust in extreme slow motion... you can hear the Necks again, but the band add some extra druggy fuzz guitar, and the laid back riffing is pregnant with the possibility of imminent explosion. Strange vocals lurk below the surface, the whole thing an epic trawl through some jazzy black space rock soundscape. Near the end, things build to a bit of a subdued climax, the guitars ringing and chiming, the drums pounding a bit more, very epic and majestic, but still somehow muted and laid back, petering out into a creepy little coda of guitar FX and gurgling monster vocals...
Wow. Seriously, we love Circle and everything, more than most folks, but this disc is an absolute killer!! Heavy and droney, groovy and jazzy and completely epic and mesmerizing and amazing!!
Comes packaged in a super intricate hand screened die cut fold over sleeve with a full color insert (featuring the band posing with spiked gauntlets in front of Stonehenge!!! Well, actually, in front of the chainlink fence in front of Stonehenge, which somehow makes more sense). The cover has two strange NWOFHM / Tyrant (the 't's in tyrant are battle axes of course) hooded knights silkscreened on the front and each copy is hand stamped and numbered. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, 500 of which made it to the United States, about 250 of which made it HERE. That's right, we got an entire quarter of the pressing. And we're pretty sure that still won't be enough, we guarantee these will not be around for long...
When talk of this band comes up in conversation, some folks around here do indeed clap their hands and say "Yeah!" Others cross their arms and say "Meh." Some make a fist and say "Fuck no!" And still others simply scratch their heads and wonder what the fuss is all about. Sooo, with whom will you be sharing your Valentine's sweets this year? Not sure? Well, perhaps the new self-released album from these exclamatory tweaked popsters will help you decide. A sizable deciding factor definitely seems to be band leader Alec Ounsworth's winsome vocals which might be endearingly nasal in a David Byrne sort of way to some, and shrilly whining to others. Produced by Dave Fridmann, Some Loud Thunder is the sophomore release by this Brooklyn, NY quintet.
Clinic will never be accused of drastically changing their sound. In fact their last few records kind of turn into a blur as it's hard to distinguish one from the other. That said they have their sound down to a science and do it very well. Visitations is another album of short concise songs that blast their way into that driving, foot stomping territory that they've become known for. Kind of like if Can were still around and had to make records for the A.D.D. generation, requiring all the songs to be around 3 minutes, catchy and to the point. We still think Clinic are a really good band, and this is by no means a bad record, it's actually pretty great, we just wish they would push themselves a bit and explore some new territory.
Mr. Rob Crow is one very swell, very talented, very varied and very prolific chap. His awesome projects past and present include Pinback, The Ladies, Heavy Vegetable, Thingy, Optiganally Yours, and oh yes, Goblin Cock too! All of them bear the unmistakable crafty clever catchy stamp of Mr. Crow. His latest solo outing is no exception. All the good stuff that we love about this songsmith is here in spades -- time signature twists, endearing dreamy boy vocals, noodle-oodly guitar lines, and the catchiest hooks. He keeps a lot of the tunes short and sweet, getting right to the heart of the matter and movin' on. Most of the fourteen songs stroll along at a drowsy pace. It's like taking a wonderfully leisurely stroll or bike ride in the warm afternoon sun. As prolific as he is, it could be easy to take Mr. Crow for granted but how could we when he's for sure one of the best songwriters around! Need we say more? Recommended!
We talk quite a bit about our favorite weirdest black metal bands here: Furze, Necrofrost, Spektr, Striborg, Circle Of Ouroborus, Benighted Leams. Urfaust, Rehtaf Ruo, Wold, the weirder the better. But one of the weirdest, and most amazing, hails from Finland, the home to most of our favorite weird music, black metal or otherwise, and goes by the curious monicker Dead Reptile Shrine.
With only one full length (now sadly out of print, with no plans to repress) and one split (with fellow Finnish BM weirdoes Torturium), and a bunch of impossible to find cd-r's, this might just be the year of the Dead Reptile Shrine. A new cd coming on Skulls Of Heaven (the label run by the guys in Davenport) as well as a new DOUBLE cd coming out on our own Andee's tUMULt label, but until then, we've got this super limited tape to tide us over.
Sabbat is not so much a proper DRS album as it is some sort of black pagan ritual, a sonic incantation to the dark spirits, incorporating feedback, samples, bits of metal bowed and struck, percussion, as well as random bits of electronic interference and damaged tape manipulation.
On first listen, this could be lumped in with other noiserockers, Merzbow, Wolf Eyes and the like. But this is Dead Reptile Shrine, their approach to noise is unlike the others', this is black, but not black metal, this is some pagan ritual performed in a forest clearing, beneath a sky rife with falling stars, the moonlight painting the trees silver, the sound coming out of busted amps and rusted speakers, glowing like some portal to hell. Thick squalls of detuned guitar and amp buzz, blown out fuzz and murky low end rumble, twisted into strange and haunting shapes, beneath it all, a gentle stream of plinking plonking FX, whispery whirs and outer space warble, rhythms surface and drift apart, drones explode into jagged shards of white noise before settling back into a cavernous throb. Strange incantations, snippets of schoolyard song, intercepted radio broadcasts, all tangled up into super distorted riffing, and bursts of abstract guitar growl. Freaked out and FUCKING AWESOME!!!
LIMITED TO 166 COPIES. Not sure if we'll be able to get more once these are gone....
Hard to believe that before the blown out, guitar hero, indie psych jangle of Dinosaur Jr, J Mascis was actually a drummer, who spent most of his time drumming in Satanic punk metal combo Upsidedown Cross, and legendary punk rockers Deep Wound!
But it wasn't just Mascis, Sebadoh mainman Lou Barlow was there too, both kicking up a shitstorm in this short lived, but kick ass outfit.
This is furious old skool punk rock, but with those two you know things would still be, well, a bit melodic. And it is, Catchy and heavy, fast and furious, the seeds of things to come...
Killer songs, tight musicianship, and yeah, we're still talking about punk rock here. While Deep Wound obviously have a bit of that classic Boston HC sound, falling somewhere between fellow Beantown brethren Siege & DC stalwarts Void, their sound wasn't quite as chaotic or over the top, but definitely just as full of conviction.
Sure, Deep Wound featured some soon-to-be indie superstars, but it wouldn't matter anyway, cuz Deep Wound stand completely on their own -- underrated though they may be -- in the first-wave-of-American-Hardcore. An essential release for sure. Better than the old cd version with new artwork and a bunch of extra songs!
Now somebody sort out a super deluxe Upsidedown Cross reissue and we'll be happy!
And also, we should note that Mascis HAS been back behind the drumkit recently, in AQ fave doomsters Witch!
This band from Atlanta is sure to create quite a stir this year with their sophomore release and their first outing for Kranky. Don't be expecting the usual Kranky fare with this one, as Deerhunter posses a distinct flair for taking their music in all sorts of directions. As influenced by blissed out and spacey drones as they are rocking momentum and pop sensibility, it's kind of like an early Factory band doing covers of songs from the first couple U2 records. We could see this creating the same kind of refreshing splash that Broken Social Scene did a few years back as this is a record with enough texture to reel in more experimental minded folks but with enough pizzaz and sleek rock moments to win over the indie-rock crowd. Really good!
What's the connection between the seemingly defunct Jewelled Antler collective and the legendary Siltbreeze label? What do Teenage Panzer Corps and Der TPK have in common? More than you might think. Some might remember a couple killer cd-r's released on the Pink Skulls label, the sort of weirdo subsidiary of Jewelled Antler, by a band called Teenage Panzer Corps, featuring Bunker Wolf, Catholic Pat, Edmund Xavier and Boy True -- AKA various members of The Birdtree, The Knit Separates, Blithe Sons, Skygreen Leopards, Thuja and more...
The sound was distinctly unlike any of the Jewelled Antler stuff, raucous, droney, arty garagey punk rawk. Loud (or at least distorted), not too fast, and Teutonically snotty, referencing '80s downer artpunk (The Fall, Factory Records stuff I guess or maybe some of Savage Republic's tracks), and '60s garage with fuzz organ, as well as noise rock and krautrock. Noisy breaks, abrupt edits, and poppy grooves all tangled up into short sharp stabs aggro art punk, with clangy angular guitars, stumbling drums, lo-fi production and German vocals.
Well Der TPK is what the Panzer Corps are now calling themselves, and somehow they've wound up on Siltbreeze, which ends up being a pretty good fit. Some of the tracks are a little more drone-y and krauty, a bit more dubbed out, but still wild and noisy and punk as fuck. Not sure how much of this is actually new stuff, but at least a handful of tracks are taken from the now out of print cd-r's. Either way, this is essential stuff, fans of any of the aforementioned bands will definitely want to pick this up.
Packaged in plain white sleeves, with purposefully crappy paste on art, and probably pretty damn limited...
We've always been fans of Julie Doiron and her wonderfully sweet voice. From all the way back to the '90s when she was in Sub Pop lo-fi pop combo Eric's Trip, to her many solo outings. However, none of her solo records captured her essence, they were good but not great. But with Woke Myself Up, it sounds like she finally got it right! Oh so right! The sound is so immediate, so bare and achingly intimate. So much presence. With honest heartfelt lyrics and a vocal delivery that recall some of our favorites, Edith Frost and Cat Power. Much like Frost's last outing, It's A Game, this is born of heart break and heart ache. The instrumentation is the perfect combination of sparse and chilling, allowing Doiron's voice to get right to the core of it all. So totally beautiful!
BACK IN STOCK AGAIN!!! This all time AQ fave and former record of the week continues to be super difficult to restock for some reason. But it's again, so don't miss out!! And there's a new Earl Shilton expected in the next little while so be prepared! Here's what we had to say about Earl Shilton when it was Record of the Week a long time back:
We somehow knew this was an Aquarius Record of the Week the minute we first laid eyes on it. Well, okay, maybe that's not entirely true. But it had the potential, that much we knew for sure, just from the cover: a huge double bass drumkit, set up in the middle of the forest with the name 'Earl' scrawled on one of the bass drums. A very evocative image, combining our love of heavy rock (the kit), with my personal thing for drums (the kit again) and our love of all things forest-y: nature sounds, field recordings, animal sounds and all that. My mind was reeling. Was it a drummer just playing solos out in the woods? Was it some sort of Jewelled Antler style rock band / field recording hybrid? Or something else entirely? Stranger yet, the song titles were all in German while the label was British. Intriguing. Better give it a listen... Well, the first track revealed very little. A weird minimal rhythmic workout composed entirely of backwards drums and cymbals. Thhwwp....thhhwwwwip...sssssssp.... Very cool, but was that the gist of it? After a minute or so of that, the record exploded into something entirely unexpected -- a crushing metal riff, with weird syncopated drumming, a sort of chunky Pantera / Prong meets the Fucking Champs vibe, with whispered vocals. Then it shifted gears again and entered into a super melodic Carcass-style death metal breakdown with howled black metal vocals before it shifted back to the machine-like opening riff. And then I knew for sure. Record of the Week!
Only later, with some Internet research, did we figure out what the heck was going on. The dedication on the inside to UK death metal crusties Bolt Thrower should have been our first clue, as it turns out that Earl Shilton is a pseudonym for Alex Thomas, former drummer for those very same metalheads. For some unknown reason, Earl Shilton is the name he has assumed for this project "of crushing death metal brutality and total corpse raping necro-blast carnage" as his website puts it. Indeed!
Furthermore, that website tells us that on tour, the band features a quite young, brother and sister rhythm section! Live, Earl steps from behind the kit to handle the guitars and vocals, while the brother plays bass, and the 16 year old sister mans the drums!!! Fuck yeah! This is getting more Record of the Week by the minute, we're thinking! And the music is well worthy too, lest we forget -- Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) is a blasting, hyper complex, super varied blast of metallic mayhem. From motorik, ultra-precise technical riffery, to stop/start math-metal complexity, from grooving, galloping death metal fury, to screeching blasting black metal, from eighties Earache style thrash to modern metallic fury, with all sorts of tripped out breakdowns, fucked up production and some really really weird parts, like the breakdown a little more than halfway through the album where everything drops out except for a simple, quietly played hypnotic tom tom rhythm, joined by backwards, super creepy Orcish vocals, and the hissing backwards drumming that started the record, before the whole thing bursts back into motion, in an explosion of grandioise Maiden-ish metal. Whew, so good. And while it may not be the best (or truest) metal record on this list, it certainly is the weirdest. And the coolest. And certainly the one most suited to being Record of the Week!
In rapid succession this new British band The Early Years tear more than a few pages out of the mighty textbooks of Neu!, CAN, Bauhaus, Jesus And Mary Chain, Spiritualized, Slowdive, Coldplay and The Doves -- meaning their sound draws hungrily from the krautrock, post-punk, psych/space-rock, shoegazer and more modern Brit rock of yesteryear. Each taken on its own would probably suggest an unforgivable derivativeness -- and occasionally guilty charges do definitely apply here -- but somehow this U.K. band have melted it all together into their own shimmering sound which is clearly nostalgia-stirring yet quite engaging in its own right. Much like their current Beggars Banquet labelmates Film School, this music that they're making is, if not sparkling with originality, at least quite an enjoyable, exceptionally well executed incarnation of their musical forefathers and heroes. Yup, we have to admit we're total suckers for it!
Another gorgeous installment in Dirk Serries' exploration of the electric guitar, the amplifier, and just how far both can be taken with as little interference from human hands. As we've mentioned before, a quick listen might have you lumping Serries and his Fear Falls Burning in with his sludgier compatriots, Earth, SUNNO))), etc... but FFB is not about sludge and pummel, it's about drift and shimmer, finding much more in common with outfits like Nadja or the Angelic Process or Hjarnidaudi. But unlike those groups, FFB is just guitar and amp, allowed to feed off each other and slowly unfurl, huge sonic tapestries, lush with subtle overtones and muted melodies, a massive massive minimalism, that continues to rub us exactly the right way.
These two tracks, recorded live, demonstrate again the breadth of Serries' delicate mastery of the amplified guitar. Soft sonic shimmers slowly fluctuate, sounding more like Niblock than anything, overtones shifting and intertwining, steel strings reverberating and stirring up microscopic whirs which all smear together into one living breathing sonic drift. The overtones become more pronounced, taking on melodic shapes, and sounding almost choral, little angelic events, subtly reminding us of Arvo Part. So lovely.
Side two seems to continue on from the very same point side one left off, a delicate serene shimmer, that slowly transforms into an undulating low end crumble, but far from sounding sludgey or even doomy, this is some sort of mystical glistening and sparkling Ur-drone, taking the thuggish caveman throb of the more well know sludgelords, and transforming it into absolute beauty, powerful, physical and surprisingly musical. Awesome.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each copy hand numbered.
Yet another somber (mostly) instrumental ensemble from the Godspeed You Black Emperor collective! This new group's sound is distinguished by layers of rich tremoloed guitar, organ drones and jazz inflected horns. Their closest kin in that Montreal music community is easily the heady improv jam driven Fly Pan Am, and their sonic resemblance is no coincidence. Feu Therese is the project of FPA guitarist Jonathan Parant, and as with most every branch of the mighty GYBE tree, folks from the other groups join in. Their self titled debut is a brooding dedication to Luc Ferrari. Five stormy disparate tracks ranging from six to twelve minutes.
The Finches' Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and Aaron Morgan follow us their self released debut 6-song ep with this full length. Human Like A House is comprised of some of the gentlest folk pop imaginable. It's a bit more polished and fleshed out with the addition of cello, pedal steel and percussion joining their Spartan vocals, guitar and bass. As charming as their previous release, the dozen tunes are dewy skinned and doe eyed, sort of like the aural equivalent of a Margaret Keane painting.
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE ALERT!!!! Wait maybe we should rephrase that. Totally blissed out and stoned to beautiful perfection ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE alert!!!
Floating Flower are a trio composed of AMT leader Kawabata Makoto on electric and acoustic guitars, Yuki on violin, electric sitar and textural vocals and Kaneko Tetsuya on tabla and electric guitar. This is spaced out acid folk at its most trance inducing. Yuki and Tetsuya are said to have been living and traveling around India for many years leading up to these recordings which were originally released as two discs on Acid Mothers Temple's label. We love how space soaked and sundrenched these songs sound. Always drifting, droning, and shimmering with feathers of tripped out voyages into endless days. It's so easy to get lost in the drugged out sonic clouds these folks conjure up. Kind of like the best slow hazy moments of Bardo Pond taken to another planet and planted in alien soil, allowing solar winds to carry beautiful flower petals into deep space, where they will drift weightless forever and ever, never coming down. So good.
By now, avid readers of the AQ list should be well aware of German black metal horde Ruins of Beverast, responsible for one of our favorite black metal records EVER. Then of course there's Nagelfar, the band that came before RoB, who were responsible for another of the greatest black metal records of all time, Virus West. If that weren't enough, these guys also run an amazing record label, responsible for the RoB record, the Nagelfar reissue, the deluxe double lp version of the only release from SF's very own doomlords the Gault, and two brand new releases, the very Ruins Of Beverast-like debut from fellow Germans Kermania, a gorgeously epic chunk of moody melancholy black metal, and this: a soul shearing blast of super blazing Nordic style blackness from another German horde, Funeral Procession.
A fairly long running black metal institution at this point, having formed almost 12 years ago, this is strangely Funeral Procession's first full length, after a clutch of eps and demos, but it was well worth the wait. Fuzzy and blown out, mostly blasting, but with plenty of moody midtempo doomy breakdowns, killer shards of angular guitar, and loud distorted drums all making for strange interludes -- but when whipped into furious blasts, it's tough to beat. Epic and majestic, fast and buzzy, grim and black. It's easy to hear some Mayhem, some Emperor, some Immortal... the elite. And FP are channelling the frosty might of the BM elite through their own uniquely skewed German black filter, bits of creepy militaristic ambience, haunting keyboards, distorted vocals and crumbling soundscapes, moaning chantlike voices, but none of that stuff defines the sound, it's all merely moody window dressing for FP's relentlessly buzzing blast, each track a frosty forlorn squall of black buzz and jagged riffery, blasting beats and howled hellish vocals. Broken up by some depressive doomic plod, but for the most part fast and furious, and fucking great!
By now everyone should be familiar with SF black metal legends Weakling. A brief existence, a handful of shows, and a single amazing record (released on Andee's tUMULt label, we should mention). Members of Weakling played in and/or went on to play in Amber Asylum, the Champs, Drunk Horse, Asunder, Sangre Amado, Saros and the short lived but now totally cult blackened gothic doom outfit The Gault. Recorded way back in 1999 by Tim Green, The Gault's Even As All Before Us languished for years before the band finally agreed on a mix and a label, and now five years later this mighty slab of depressive doom finally sees the light of day. Some of you may be wondering why we're only getting around to reviewing this now, since it was released a few months ago... and, the entire first pressing is already sold out. So what's the deal? Well, bad news for any of you who already picked up a copy somewhere else. The ENTIRE first pressing was, in fact, defective. But not defective enough apparently for the label to care, as they refused to repress it and continued to sell the defective copies anyway. To our ears though, the harsh digital glitches inadvertently inserted between every track totally detracted from the gorgeously bleak and harrowing ambience. So the band took it upon themselves to have corrected copies pressed themselves, and thus we finally have the Gault record the way it was meant to be heard. Imagine those Weakling riffs, slowed down and wrapped in dense '80s-ish reverb, smeared and stretched into serpentine minor key melodies, throbbing and pulsing and slithering through midtempo dronescapes of shimmering guitar buzz, creeping basslines, ghostlike female vocals, crashing steady drumming all cloaked in a rich blackened haze, suffocating and claustrophobic, but somehow completely epic at the same time. Think a black metal Joy Division and you might be close, due in no small part to vocalist Ed Kunakemakorn's distinctive wail. Equal parts Ian Curtis, Interpol's Paul Banks and weirdly enough, Dutch weirdo black metallers Urfaust, a soaring mournful croon, rich and velvety and quite haunting. Each track is a twisting complex doomscape of fuzzed out drones, pounding downtuned riffage, swirling psychedelic ambience, slow motion crawl and creep, building and building into massive black swells. A gorgeously creepy collection of heaving, lurching, dark and delicate, doomy and dense epics. So emotional and so totally and completely intense!
The follow-up to 2004's magnificent Hypnotic Underworld from Japanese communal psych vets Ghost is finally here! The heavy-prog moves of that album are still in evidence, as well as their perpetual penchant for otherworldly folk -- and, as well, on the nearly half-hour "Hemicyclic Anthelion", Ghost venture into the realm of what goes beyond mere prog to sound remarkably like avant-garde 20th century classical! Ghost are certainly an ambitious band, with talent to match. With the dark, abstract, droning vibes of "Hemicyclic Anthelion" hanging over the proceedings, In Stormy Nights proves to be, well, a dark and stormy album. Downright aggressive, even, are the trio of tracks that follow it in the middle of this disc.
True, In Stormy Nights starts placidly enough with "Motherly Bluster", classic Ghost style acid folk, Batoh's calm voice singing from some mystic plane of crosslegged bliss. But then, the aforementioned "Hemicyclic Anthelion" takes the stage -- literally, as this piece is apparently constructed from excerpts of live in-concert improvs, an electro-acoustic, slow-mo freakout that represents Ghost at their most out-there and experimental. Following that, it seems that Ghost have fallen to the Dark Side of the Force. Indeed, the ominous "Water Door Yellow Gate" actually reminds us a bit of the music from Star Wars (!), with martial drumming and majestic chant. "Gareki No Toshi" is noisier, with distorted vocals and suspense-film urgency. What's next? Something even more frightening -- a stirring cover of the song "Caledonia" by none other than cult ESP-label sixties psych-rock "tribe" Cromagnon!! Wow. Of all of Batoh & Co.'s various cover versions over the years (they've done songs by Syd Barrett, Pearls Before Swine, The Rolling Stones, and Earth & Fire, just to name ones we can think of right now) this has to be our favorite. Partially 'cause we'd never thought we'd hear a Cromagnon cover, partially 'cause it's such a great song, and partially 'cause Ghost do it so well, complete with bleating Celtic horn, black metallish vocal rasping, and swirling, droning, bellicose ambiance. For us, this penultimate track is the climax to the album, but Ghost provide a coda, "Grisaille" coming full circle back to the gentle balladry of "Motherly Bluster", the dark side having perhaps been vanquished... for now.
Wow, is that a mouthful. The band is called Ghosts Brames Of The Cerf's Magickal and the record's called For Every Hang Thy Dreamy Spell, Round Mountain Star And Heather Bell. WTF? Nothing there could possibly prepare you for he dreamy drift contained within. GBOTCM is another project of French outfit the Reggaee, who have teamed up with some like minded musical alchemists for a late night ritual of simple guitar strum and strange disembodied percussion. Minor key buzz and twang, stretched out over a murky low end throb, with bits of fluttery flute, a bit of dark and drifting campfire forestfolk, ominous and melancholy, laid back and shadow lit. Eventually, this flickering folks is joined by soft swells of subterranean drone and brief burbles of spacey FX, adding to the dreamy drift but never disrupting the tranquil ambience.
LIMITED TO 49 COPIES!!! Already out of print so act fast...
ATTENTION PROG ROCKERS! You know who you are. We are too. And while sure there's plenty of old faves and obscure '70s reissues to occupy your/our time, it's nice once in a while to get a hold of something new, something current, that still gives you that '70s prog-rock kick, right? We do our best to find stuff like that, and when we do we want to let you know. One recent example that hopefully you've already picked up was the new album from San Francisco's Crime In Choir. Well here's something else along those lines -- the cd debut from this really cool prog/jazz/psych band from Stockholm, Sweden. Recorded mid-2006, yet chock full of Mellotron, and even flute!! Yeah! And like CIC, GBS is also an all-instrumental proposition.
Gosta Berlings Saga -- we don't know why they chose it, but their name comes from the title of a 1891 Swedish novel, later (in 1924) made into a silent film that featured Greta Garbo in her first first starring role -- are definitely sorta retro, but still seem youthful and hip (a la Dungen, perhaps). They are definitely heavy on the keys, from Mellotron to synth to Fender Rhodes, but guitar and bass aren't neglected in the lineup. The drummer also has a crucial role to play, propelling these songs through their mostly 8-minutes-and-upwards lengths... In addition, they bring in that flute for one song, and also guests playing violins on a couple other cuts. Oh, and we've got to mention that there's somebody credited with "Buddha Machine" on another track!! All of this is woven together into a delightfully proggy, jazzy sound, reminding us of bits of Yes and Univers Zero as well as (fellow Swedes) Hansson & Karlsson and Kebnekajse. The seven tracks here encompass moods both bright and cheery, or (to a lesser extent, though) dim and dark, being by turns melancholic and sentimental, or dramatic and urgent. Apparently this is a concept album of sorts, something about the interaction of the forest and the city, with detours into outer space -- and ancient Egypt?? Well, of course, since it's instrumental (and furthermore the song titles are in Swedish), we can't really tell all that from just listening, as evocative as their music is, though the cool cd booklet artwork holds some clues (as does the band's website, from whence we got our information). Add some more prog rock points then for the concept album concept! And GBS gets even more points for definitely being about the MUSIC, not the playing. While it's obvious that these guys are good, they're not showing off, they're writing and performing some marvelous, melodic music without pretense that's still wonderfully PROG.
Album number two from this Japanese improv drone duo, featuring Hirotomo Hasegawa and Shizu Uchida, who weave their wonderfully abstract soundworld from bass, vocals, single string koto and a double-reed wind instrument called the "hichiriki". Much like their debut cd on PSF, record number two is epic and sparse, dark and mysteriously haunting. Two side long tracks, culled from live improvisations with no overdubs, two sides of the record, two sides of this band's split personality.
Side one is a barely there creep through wide open space, space space and more space. Peppered with occasional bits of reedy skronk and low end flutter, these little sonic disturbances drift in a black expanse. The first half of the side in fact is almost nothing. So minimal it requires seriously deep listening to take it in. Soon however the bass surfaces offering a distant abstract drone, that sort of weaves in and out of the audible world, giving the reed and the spare vocals something to orbit, however tenuously.
Side two finds the band in a much more psychedelic Ur-drone state of mind, channeling the spirit of the Taj Mahal Travellers. The sound is still spacious, just not so empty, the skronk toned down to a reedy Eastern melody, sprawled out over a slowly shifting back drop of churning, roiling low end rumble and throb. A living sound like the universe slowly folding in on itself. Reverb wrapped around slow low melodies, all tangled up in the snake charmer sound of the hichiriki, a sound that seems to unfurl as if it might go on forever. So gorgeous.
Vinyl only. LIMITED TO 400 COPIES! We have a handful but will NOT be able to get more. Pressed on nice thick vinyl, packaged in a super thick, gorgeously printed sleeve, with a Japanese style obi!
Now available on vinyl!
If you read any rock magazines, Rolling Stone, Spin, whatever, or watch MTV or whatever channel they have now that shows videos, you've probably heard of the Hold Steady by now. This is their second or third record already, but they're only now being touted as the next big thing. But with a weird angle. They've been really pushing the 'bar band' or 'club band' angle. As if every young band didn't spend all their time rocking little clubs all over. But in this case it seems to be more that they 'sound' like a classic American rock band, heartland, beers, and after work parties, old pickups and Pabst Blue Ribbon. That sort of thing. We weren't really sure what to expect, it is on Vagrant after all, so maybe we were feeling a little Get Up Kids or something, but holy shit! This really is modern American roots rock bar rock bandanna rock and roll. Lots of piano and organ, simple drumming, big crashing guitars, and a vocalist who has a weird lazy drawl, and who sort of slurs more than sings. And while that combo is totally infectious, and the songs are hooky as all get out, we don't hear the Replacements and Soul Asylum (Dave Pirner guests on a few tracks!) and other classic Midwest rockers that often get mentioned. Nope. We hear lots of Springsteen, and as hard as it may be to believe, a whole lot of Eddie And The Cruisers!!! Sounds funny but it's true, and in no way is that a bad thing. Bad ass working class rock and roll, every song a tale of workdays and weekends, cars and chicks, life and love, but given a modern day, Vagrant Records, big guitar emorock spit shine, but without losing the rootsy goodness and working man shit kicking get drunk and rock hard vibe. Definitely makes us want to head down to the local watering hole, sidle up to the bar, and spend the night getting sweaty to loud wild rock and roll, and hopefully not going home alone...
Finally after years of demos and splits and cassette tape releases, the first proper full length from Swedish suicidal black metallers Hypothermia. You might remember Hypothermia from their split with Dimhymn, in the review of which we described their sound as "Epic fuzzed out glacial dirge, with thick riffs spread out in a black smear, the drums a caveman plod, and some of the most fucked vocals ever: weird, something-caught-in-the-throat sort of strangulated grunts and mewls, guttural growls and strange falsetto-y squeaks." And not too much has changed. In fact, Hypothermia's final track on that split was an "epic 16 minute midtempo buzzscape, [with] looped riffs, totally repetitive and hypnotic..." and dang if Veins isn't three of those, each a massive buzzing midtempo black dirge, slowly pounding drums, simple raw hypnotic riffing, repeated and repeated, into a mesmerizing musical mantra, the relentless buzz blurring into near drones, and anguished, cries of utter agony, over swirls of dismal black buzz.
Definitely for fans of Burzum, Nortt, Make A Change... Kill Yourself, Silencer, Xasthur and other purveyors of doomic black hate.
And if the music weren't depressed and dismal enough, the sleeve sports some seriously horrific and blood drenched images, bloody slit wrists, the word failure carved into an arm, a bathtub splattered with blood, and all the lyrics written in blood on blood soaked paper towels...
What can we say about Isis that we haven't already said at this point. They are the masters. The Lords of epic, brooding, slow burn, metallic post rock majesty. And rightfully so. Every record has managed to push forward, exploring new territory, without losing what it is that makes us like them so much. Which is tough to do. But Isis make it seem effortless.
Sure, you can blame them for the recent glut of mediocre moody epic math rock. But it's really not their fault. Everytime a band happens upon a 'new' sound, a sound that is dramatic, and exciting, a sound that captures the ears of jaded music fans, well, undoubtedly in the wake of that band will follow an army of wannabees.
But Isis remain unfazed. They sit within their castle, atop a mountain of mighty riffs, and sharp craggy melodies, gazing down from the heavens. Free to do whatever they want with their sound, even if it pisses off the masses, especially if it pisses off the masses.
So with In The Absence Of Truth, Isis have again redefined and reassessed, resulting in a new record that is distinctly less metal, and much more moody and expansive. Lots of tribal drumming, crooning vocals, the metallic chugs aren't huge back-breaking riffs, instead they are part of the sonic landscape, contributing to the texture almost more than the overall heaviness. Where Isis were once worshippers at the altar of Neurosis, they have now pretty much entirely shed their Neurotic trappings and emerged butterfly like to display their new shape and blindingly resplendent colors. Rare is the heavy band that is as adept at crafting epic soundscapes, creating tension and weaving elaborate sonic tapestries as they are at crushing and pounding and pummeling, but Isis are definitely that rare band.
However, don't be misled by all this talk of mood and ambience, a lot of In The Absence Of Truth is very heavy, and is quite metal, vocals howl and downtuned riffs crush, drums pound and the bass throbs, the band transforming into a swaying lurching metallic behemoth. BUT, these huge bursts of metallic might are placed with care, used sparingly, the way a writer judiciously doles out his exclamation points, each blast nestled between lengthy sonic explorations and slow meandering moody mathiness, resulting in a super dynamic and entirely captivating slab of subtle heaviness.
OK, now Isis are getting in on the confusing multiple version thing, but, c'mon, you know you love it!! This is the fancy imported Japanese version, on Daymare Recordings, of the most recent Isis record In The Absence Of Truth. Not to be confused with the domestic version on Robotic Empire. This is of course incredibly limited, the ones we have are on either clear, or red vinyl, and which color you get will be COMPLETELY RANDOM, so please DO NOT request a particular color. Nice thick gatefold jackets, printed inner sleeves. These are super expensive, they're imports, they have almost the exact same artwork as the domestic version, except for a Japanese style obi, and obviously the colored vinyl. But knowing you Isis fans, you'll probably want both this one AND the Robotic Empire one, and why the heck not, it's a fucking kick ass record:
What can we say about Isis that we haven't already said at this point. They are the masters. The Lords of epic, brooding, slow burn, metallic post rock majesty. And rightfully so. Every record has managed to push forward, exploring new territory, without losing what it is that makes us like them so much. Which is tough to do. But Isis make it seem effortless.
Sure, you can blame them for the recent glut of mediocre moody epic math rock. But it's really not their fault. Everytime a band happens upon a 'new' sound, a sound that is dramatic, and exciting, a sound that captures the ears of jaded music fans, well, undoubtedly in the wake of that band will follow an army of wannabees.
But Isis remain unfazed. They sit within their castle, atop a mountain of mighty riffs, and sharp craggy melodies, gazing down from the heavens. Free to do whatever they want with their sound, even if it pisses off the masses, especially if it pisses off the masses.
So with In The Absence Of Truth, Isis have again redefined and reassessed, resulting in a new record that is distinctly less metal, and much more moody and expansive. Lots of tribal drumming, crooning vocals, the metallic chugs aren't huge back-breaking riffs, instead they are part of the sonic landscape, contributing to the texture almost more than the overall heaviness. Where Isis were once worshippers at the altar of Neurosis, they have now pretty much entirely shed their Neurotic trappings and emerged butterfly like to display their new shape and blindingly resplendent colors. Rare is the heavy band that is as adept at crafting epic soundscapes, creating tension and weaving elaborate sonic tapestries as they are at crushing and pounding and pummeling, but Isis are definitely that rare band.
However, don't be misled by all this talk of mood and ambience, a lot of In The Absence Of Truth is very heavy, and is quite metal, vocals howl and downtuned riffs crush, drums pound and the bass throbs, the band transforming into a swaying lurching metallic behemoth. BUT, these huge bursts of metallic might are placed with care, used sparingly, the way a writer judiciously doles out his exclamation points, each blast nestled between lengthy sonic explorations and slow meandering moody mathiness, resulting in a super dynamic and entirely captivating slab of subtle heaviness.
By now, avid readers of the AQ list should be well aware of German black metal horde Ruins of Beverast, responsible for one of our favorite black metal records EVER. Then of course there's Nagelfar, the band that came before RoB, who were responsible for another of the greatest black metal records of all time, Virus West. If that weren't enough, these guys also run an amazing record label, responsible for the RoB record, the Nagelfar reissue, the deluxe double lp version of the only release from SF's very own doomlords the Gault, and two brand new releases, the super blazing blackness of Funeral Procession, and this, the very Ruins Of Beverast-like debut from fellow countrymen Kermania!
Much like RoB, Kermania, are as much about atmosphere and mood, ambience and melody, as they are about blackness and buzz. This is massive, epic, sorrowful, melodic black metal. The opening track is almost 25 minutes long, an expansive journey that touches on all sorts of moods and sounds. From the lilting midtempo intro, with swoonsome clean vocals buried way down in the mix and dark, doleful minor key melodies, to some super harsh hateful suicidal black metal buzz, to drone drenched dream folk, to strange militaristic ambience, to full on and furious black thrash, and back again, culminating in a glorious droning, dreamy chantlike blasting black soundscape. And that's just the first song. Most bands would have called it a record after that... but Ahnenwerk still has more than a half hour left to go.
The second track is brief, but just as epic and majestic sounding, a perfect blend of black buzz and mournful melancholia, this time with killer fuzzed out riffing beneath loud, clear vocals, bookended by blasts of utterly harsh grimness. The whole thing suffused with haunting mournful melodicism. The final track is a seasick waltz, a Viking style folky black metal shanty, with clean vocals and acoustic guitars beneath the black buzz.
But before we get to that, there's another 20 minute plus epic to wade through, beginning with simple strummed guitars, the sounds of horses and footsteps, an hypnotic loping drawn out melody, weird processed vocals, a midtempo trawl through dark nights and long forgotten dreams. Dark and dreary and gorgeously miserable. About halfway through the sorrowful trudge suddenly explodes into a hellishly blasting buzz, all fuzzy riffs and lightning fast blast beats, howled demonic vocals, stopping only briefly to shimmer dreamily, before bursting into black action again. Dizzyingly epic and gloriously despondent. Folks who like their metal harsh and hateful, sad and sorrowful, murky and miserable, will feel right at home...
Wow, is this exciting! A killer Japanese import, that combines the most recent Khante release, the lengthy two song Capture and Release, as well as the long out of print and going-for-way-too-much-on-eBay Dead & Live Aktions DVD 2005!! Woo Haa!!! If you missed out, now's your chance. Plus it's in an all new super swanky Japanese style mini gatefold sleeve with an obi and everything!
Here's what we had to say about the cd:
A new Khanate! 'Nuff said perhaps, as all you AQ doom customers surely know what that means! Ultra-depressive dirge metal from some of the best in the biz. Capture & Release, a two-song, 43 minute "ep" (maxi-ep? mini-lp? heck, it's a full-length, really!) is the third cd release from this NYC-based band, featuring Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))) on guitar and graphics, bassist James Plotkin of OLD, singer Alan Dubin (also from OLD), and drummer Tim Wyskida. By now, Khanate have really established a distinct style of extreme, slow, scary, art-metal. To the point that we're always citing them as a comparison when describing other bands. They're the standard by which anyone indulging in feedback-filled heaviness, anguished/evil vocalizations, creepy atmosphere, double digit song-lengths, and rumbling sub-sonics is judged -- like when we say Bunkur or Graves At Sea (reviewed on this list) are bands in the style of Khanate. So if would be easy to review Capture & Release if it were by *another* band -- we'd say it was a lot like Khanate and that'd be enough to recommend it to many of you! Of course, Khanate themselves can be compared to predecessors Corrupted and especially Eyehategod, godfathers of feedback sludge brutality. But Khanate's compositions are way more extended, dramatically ambitious, and clinically produced than EHG, and utilize "experimental" sonic textures and loud/soft dynamics in the manner of a post-rock band as well. This new disc really exemplified this approach, with the second, 25-minute track "Release" featuring lots of really quiet parts that make us think a hypothetical Khanate / Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore tour would be PERFECT. (We can dream, can't we?) Vocalist Alan Dubin makes the most of these "vulnerabilities" in the band's otherwise crushing sound barrage, with dark, cryptic, and psychologically suggestive rather than explicit lyrics wherein he seems to be inhabiting the role of the deviant antagonist from a Thomas Harris novel...but poetically enough that perhaps we can all relate, and indeed find release in their music.
And here's what we had to say about the DVD:
This captures (and limitedly releases, ha) angsty doom merchants Khanate in the live realm, sometime last year. If you've ever seen this band, you know that they don't exactly 'rock out', having a somewhat static stage presence, though vocalist Alan Dubin always puts on an impassioned performance. Fortunately for those of you who'll be lucky enough to watch this at home, this is a very 'arty' visual document -- the live video footage has been processed to be all the more grim and psychedelic. Cool to look at, while of course the music is murder-by-decibels, feedback-filled, downtuned DOOOOOOOM like you expect.
Extreme doom here folks. I mean, these four tracks (two of 'em approaching twenty minutes each) are slower and lower and uglier even than the tunes on Khanate's immense self-titled debut from two years ago! We're not saying this tops the debut (that would be difficult) but Things Viral takes the Khanate sound into a seldom-explored realm where signs of life and hope are few and far between. This is some sparse, slow, intensely creepy metal for sure. The plod of a drum, some glitchy amplifier feedback, a crushing guitar riff, bass drone...all the perfect accompaniment to the anguished rasp of vocalist Alan Dubin, who turns this record into his own personal let-it-all-out psycho-drama session. As soon as the first track "Commuted" starts, you can imagine the band, broken, bleeding, crawling across the floor of the studio, scrabbling at their instruments, Dubin clutching the microphone like it's his last link to a world of human emotion. It's harrowing, simply put. The ravings of a disturbed man put to music by Earth would be a decent description. Downer metal was never so down, and the clarity with which this was recorded belies the term sludge. Only for the brave -- leave the lights on when you listen to this, and make sure you have the suicide hotline number handy. Includes the track "Dead" previously released on vinyl only as the b-side to the "No Joy [remix]" 12".
Khanate = slow, plodding, dark, distortion-filled, droney, dissonant DOOM, in the (sliced and bleeding) vein of Esoteric, Burning Witch, Corrupted, Earth, Boris, Eyehategod...5 looong tracks (56+ minutes total). And if you haven't heard, this new doom-metal
So good to hear New Zealand's David Kilgour continuing to keep things nice 'n' simple. His sixth full length The Far Now contains more of his high calibre, straightforward singer/songwriter pop tunes in league with The Go-Betweens, Mountain Goats and Robyn Hitchcock. Y'know, that cardigan sweater and argyle sock wearin' intellectual pop songs filled with jangly guitars, wide-eyed innocence and poetic sweetheart hooks that get you... right... there! Ever so gently nails your heartstrings every time.
