We've long been shrieking and demonically howling the praises of Russian black metal horde Old Wainds, but until recently, we had been unable to track down any of their releases. One of their old demos was re-released (Withers Of The Wainds) which was much easier to get, and then slowly but surely we managed to track down the rest of their releases. We reviewed the godlike Scalding Coldness a few lists back (we're still waiting for our restock, thanks for being patient) and this time we've got a killer split, between Old Wainds and their fellow countrymen (and Old Wainds offshoot) Nav. We reviewed the full length lp from Nav a while back but were unable to get their cd (we're still trying) so for lots of folks this may be your first chance to hear Nav.
Anyway, like we've said in the past, a true measure of a band, is who is listening to them, especially when it's other bands, so when we say Old Wainds is EVERYBODY'S favorite (and we're talking Crebain, Leviathan, Xasthur, Nachtmystium, Andee!!) that's pretty high praise indeed.
And not at all unwarranted. Old Wainds are the Blizzard Beasts of the East. A howling buzzing blast of frosty fury, so intense and relentless, a completely epic black buzz, but with incredible riffs, amazing arrangements and some seriously intense vocals. Not as bizarre as they were on the Withers Of The Wainds demo, but much harsher and hellish than on Scalding Coldness. Through The Chaos To Eternal Winter (Old Wainds' half of the split) is 18 minutes of unbridled brutality, black beauty, so gloriously heavy, recorded way back in 1999, this sounds as heavy and intense as most of the bands peddling their black metal wares today. Three blasts of buzzing black brilliance, the fourth a haunting ambient folk drift, complete with dirgey downtuned guitar and disembodied minor key piano, and harsh reverb drenched vocals.
Perfectly matched, and in some ways maybe even better than the Wainds (gasp!), are Nav, the project of Old Wainds drummer Izbor and featuring at least one other Old Waind in its ranks. The sound is similar, grim and frosty, but somehow the buzz is bigger, thicker, with even less melody than Old Wainds, and more blast, the vocals are distorted and buried in the mix, the songs are peppered with bursts of lurching midtempo Burzumic buzz, but Nav spend most of their time buzzing along at hyperspeed, the blackened buzz so thick and relentless, it becomes a fuzzy drone, mesmerizingly blurry and blown out. the drums so fast they are like another layer of sonic fuzz. But it's not just buzz, the riffs are killer, the melodies are there, and are catchy as hell, just completely suffocated by the icy black buzzing of the relentless guitars and nonstop blasting beats. The final track begins with some reverb drenched acoustic guitar, quite lovely and dreamlike, before being engulfed by a strangely melodic and dramatic minor key black blast, almost like a black metal Godspeed, epic and keening and oddly enough, really really pretty.
Absolutely essential, as with all things Old Wainds (and Nav for that matter)...
Another in the Jyrk series of ultra limited 3" dvd-r's, this one from Eric Ostrowski, who is probably best known as half of the Portland violin / guitar duo Noggin, but who also works some eye popping magic with film, hand painting the individual frames of the film, with bright colors, striking patterns, dense textures, all morphing and changing shape and color in the blink of an eye, as the film runs at normal speed, and the painted frames, blur into kaleidoscopic swirls, almost like someone combined a microscope and a kaleidoscope, and filmed the tiniest inner workings of everyday objects. Three distinct movements, the first, a continuously morphing series of colors and patterns, almost like video feedback but organic, like the different inks were sentient and interacting with each other, the second is much more geometric and plays like a Mondrian come to life, the third, more blurred colors and shifting textures.
All to the sound of Ostrowski's abstract compositions, from whirling fields of pink noise, delicate squalls of hiss and static rife with buried melodies, sort of like a soft focus Merzbow, to strange tangled string sections, looped into hypnotic intertwined patterns, to the ominous atonal thrum and cacophony of what sounds like an orchestra tuning up.
Packaged in a mini 3" plastic DVD case, with full color artwork.
LIMITED TO 90 COPIES!!!! Already out of print, these are the last copies ever...
Animal Collective's Panda Bear has been releasing an amazing string of singles and splits in anticipation of his new solo album, and this newest single, Bro's, is the best yet.
An extended dose of Phil Spectorish wall of sound, Brill Building beats, layered and shifting vocal harmonies and a hint of Jim "Witchi Tai" Pepper's Native American jazz pop reverie. The B-side is a subdued remix by Terrestrial Tones that complements the single nicely!
Latest in the super limited Type Records 7" series, that in the past has featured Goldmund, Machinefabriek and Paavoharju, which should give you an idea of the sound you can expect. Warm, glistening, shimmering, blissed out, sun dappled, These two tracks from Benoit Pioulard are all of those things, but unlike those other bands, Pioulard is a singer, and these two tracks are heavy on the vocals. He's got a lovely voice, deep and dramatic, not unlike Stephin Merritt, in fact these sort of sound like a more electronic Magnetic Fields. Acoustic guitars drift over electronic glitchery, bits of skitter here and there, but at its heart, some pretty pop music. Think Postal Service, Figurine, B. Fleischmann, Momus, Magnetic Fields, but filtered through the dusty lens of M83's fuzzy bliss. So nice.
Here's a little teaser while we wait (see the clever title) for the next Polyphonic Spree album. Two new songs which will be on the forthcoming full length, and three covers of The Psychedelic Furs, Nirvana and front man Tim Delaughter's old band Tripping Daisy. Bright eyed pop for the white robe brigade.
We would be the last ones to deny the fact that we are easily swayed. Or at the very least, easily intrigued. Band names get us every time. A killer band name and we're halfway there. Album title, artwork, it all lures us in, has us already loving bands before we've ever heard them. Sure, once in a while we're disappointed, but for the most part, sometimes you can judge a band by their cover. Needless to say, we were pretty intrigued by a band called Prehistoric Fuckin' Moron(s), the optional plural added an extra bit of mystery to the whole thing as well, even more so when we realized it was indeed a single moron. And as if that weren't enough, all it took was a quick gander at the description of the music and we were well beyond sold: "Take one moron, feed him copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, throw him a bunch of old turntables with some effects and watch him smash the shit out of them. Totally weird, absolutely insane." Almost sounds like we wrote it. And heck, we would have, if they didn't already, cuz this is in fact totally weird and absolutely insane.
Imagine Christian Marclay and Philip Jeck, both dosed with LSD, having some sort of lo-fi DJ battle, the entire thing run through a bank of effects pedals and recorded on a busted 4-track. The weird thing is, this isn't as noisy as you might imagine, at least not all of it. The opener is dark and muddy, a super dubbed out spacey drift, reverb and delay wrapping everything in a thick coat of fuzzy blur, the sounds allowed to drift into oblivion. Very dreamlike and tranquil. But the second track is anything but. A cacophony of industrial clatter, and murky vocal snippets, huge ch-chunks from the needle skipping, but emerging from the cacophony are some strangely dreamy loops as well as some jagged shards of distorted noise. The rest of the tape is schizophrenic in that way, flitting from speaker shredding chaos, to strangely serene loopscapes, often times both simultaneously. It's all very chaotic and fucked up and freaked out and messy, but it's such a glorious mess. Fans of Jeck and Tetreault and Marclay and Strotter Inst and Bastien with an ultra lo-fi bent will be in skipping scratching scraping stuttering turntable heaven.
As much as it hurts us to say, it might just be time to give up on hoping for a new Absu record. That bizarre Texan horde is responsible for some of our favorite weirdo black metal ever. But it's been years since we've heard from them, collectively that is. We recently reviewed an electro record from Absu guitarist Equitant. Not metal electro, but real, squelchy, house-y electro. Cool stuff, but nothing we ever imagined hearing from any of the Absu guys, no matter how weird they were. So here we have the latest recording from Absu drummer Proscriptor, who in the past has dabbled in some serious weirdness outside of Absu, with a handful of strange ambient recordings, but this, this is so far out we thought at first we must have put on the wrong record. But as with most things Absu it didn't take long for us to become completely and utterly smitten.
Packaged in a mysterious silver sleeve, with bits of strange numerology and symbology, including an appropriately black metal Proscriptor logo with bat wings and candles and flames. So side one begins with tinkling new age chimes, very tranquil and serene, when suddenly very intense male female vocals, harmonizing, singing of the 4 Horseman, very haunting, almost cheesy, when the band kicks into a fill on rock jam, BIG drums, crunchy guitars, throbbing bass, heavy riffing, wild guitar solos... and then back to the weird dramatic vocals. It doesn't sound so much like metal as it does some sort of bombastic musical. Over the top with a through-the-roof WTF factor. But after a few listens, we sort of WANTED it to actually be a musical, we could imagine some sort of Bat Out Of Hell super stage show, with Proscriptor and his lady battling the Four Horsemen. So it was on to side 2 and if we thought it couldn't get any weirder, well, we were WRONG! Groovy almost Southern rock, but with harsh black metal vocals and bizarre female back up vocals, the whole thing sounding like a metallized Rocky Horror Picture Show. Some impossible mix of Venom and ZZ Top and... wait a minute, we suddenly recognize the song, the cover says it's called "Epod No Sknup Etihw", but it sounds, suspiciously like... THE TUBES. Holy shit! It's a cover of the Tubes "White Punks On Dope"! Again, WHAT THE FUCK?!? Sure, it's amazing, demented, tweaked, bizarre, but this is the drummer from Absu!!! Who would have thought?!?! Only makes us love him more. And for some reason we can't stop listening to either of these tracks...
Cool packaging, metallic silver jacket, printed inner sleeve, and pressed on the THICKEST white vinyl ever!!!
We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
Two brief blasts from AQ fave Pumice, aka Stephan Neville. One side delicate and ephemeral, gorgeous disembodied guitar melodies, drifting in a wide open field of static and distortion, drifty and spacy and so lovely. The other side clattery free noise jam, with junkyard percussion, atonal melodic buzz, bits of low end growl, everything angular and abstract, stumbling and chaotic and strangely catchy.
Another way too limited missive from mysterious Irish drone outfit Quetzolcoatl, this time in the form of a split cassette, with the until now unknown to us outfit Changeling. This ridiculously limited hand painted tape begins with AQ faves Quetzolcoatl, featuring member(s) of another AQ fave Bonecloud, who explore a gorgeously muddy and murky soundworld, long drawn out drifts of grimy gritty sound. Warm and muted, dark sonic swirls, plenty of hiss and fuzz and delay and reverb, with bits of percussion, vocals, keening feedback, all drifting and swirling way below the surface, a roiling miasma of thick sound. Dark and ominous and tribal, dense squalls of distorted guitar drift overhead like storm clouds. It almost sounds like that weird ambient opening to Kiss' "God Of Thunder" but slowed way down and dubbed on to some old thrift store tape. Taj Mahal Travellers is a name that always comes up when we're talking about these guys, and with good reason, while that legendary Japanese ensemble employed a wildly different approach to sound making, the actual sounds themselves are quite similar. The expansiveness, the epic quality, but Quetzolcoatl get a bit more aggressive, the guitars and drums buried beneath thick layers of buzz and grit. The flipside features Changeling, and if anything, they sound like they could well feature some of the same members, cuz the sound is slightly similar, but where Quetzolcoatl are dark and aggressive, intense and murky, Changeling are blisssful and dreamy, dark layers of sound, hiss and fuzz, rumble and whir, but here sculpted into delicate waves, and subtle swells, a little bit dark, but glowing with some sort of mysterious warmth, glistening sounds rich and resplendent woven into soft focus drifts of moody murk. Like rays of the sun through a dirty window. So nice.
Dronemusic is always tough to describe, especially trying to explain or even understand what exactly it is that makes one group so much more compelling than another. Maybe that something isn't meant to be described, some ineffable quality that is in the music, and can't be pulled out and examined, or understood. That's sort of the vibe we get from both these groups. There is a magical mystical quality to the music they make, a sound, or even something outside of the sound (or inside) that connects on some primal level. Something to let wash over you, to fill up your ears, to carry you off, something almost physical, something organic and pure, not something that can be understood or explained. So good.
Hand painted cassette tape housed in a hand painted cloth bag, with a printed insert. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, we got a bunch, but they'll be gone in no time...
Wow! What an artifact. Here's some Egyptian jazz from the late 60's-early 70's courtesy of of the man who founded the first jazz big band in Egypt and later accompanied Sun Ra on tour in Egypt, Greece, France and Spain. We're pretty sure you must be damn curious by now, so we should tell you that beyond those enticing facts this is some seriously fine jazz played by a band made up of some of the best musicians in Egypt during that era. Five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass, drums and percussion all coming together to form a super rich and tasty sound. Incorporating Middle Eastern melodies and mystique into its sound, this is the kind of jazz that's pretty impossible not to fall for. Like the best instrumental Ethiopiques tracks, Sun Ra's big-band era and Randy Weston's multicultural approach to hard bop. Incredibly pleasing!
First proper actual cd full length from this blissy UK free folk crew, after a clutch of (now out of print) cd-r's and a collaborative disc with the North Sea. Matanuska begins as a gloriously blissful late afternoon, sunshiney slab of fuzzy, buzzy, muted pop ambience, sparkling and glimmering, there are guitars, but they aren't plucked or strummed so much as spread like a thick glaze over the speakers. Within this gorgeous sun dappled soundfield, are tangled up bits of found sounds, distant ringing bells, rumbling thunder, as well as subtle layers of drone and shimmer adding mystery and depth to each track.
The rest of the record however is not so sunshiney, the mood is much more dark and shadowy, lit by moonlight, rumbles and whirs swirled into lush late night crawls, acoustic guitars draped over slow serene swells of sound, the buzz of steel strings muted and drawn out into simple shimmering ragas, the vibe is definitely sorrowful, melancholy, with minor key melodies drifting through intricate webs of abstract Appalachia, wheezing layered drones spread out like a late afternoon fog, amidst chirping birds and distant bits of conversation, a slowly shifting bit of minimal dreamdrone that brightens subtly as it works its way though the disc.
The record finishes up with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds, like that glorious first day of Spring, the birds once again singing, the shimmering sounds soaking up the sunlight, a drifting drone, warm and glowing, a hopeful dreamy sound that blossoms like a flower after a rainstorm, the hushed buzz growing fuzzier and fuzzier, almost like a fading memory. So nice.
We know we're only a few months into 2007 but we're pretty sure that Candylion will be right there at the top of the list of our favorite pop records of the year! While we've always sort of liked Super Fury Animals, we have to say this solo outing by front man Gruff Rhys surpasses anything they've ever done! So totally catchy, quirky and impeccably crafted, Candylion is pretty much everything you could want in a pop record. It's so fitting that this record showed up right when Spring finally sprang on SF... this is the perfect soundtrack to carefree afternoons, balmy evenings, topdown freeway excursions as the wind blows in and the sun glows in the sky. Rhys demonstrates great taste and a pretty impressive knowledge of obscure psych rock/pop of the past, in creating his own timeless masterpiece. Whether singing in English or his native Welsh (as he does on a couple tracks), he's a master of vocal melodies and the perfect instrumental accompaniment. When you listen closely you realize there is so much going on from Gameboy beats to flute to pedal steel to stylophone, but like all great pop maestros Rhys knows so perfectly how to incorporate all those elements smoothly and subtly to create dense and dreamy near perfect pop. So totally recommended!
DJ RJD2 sampled his way to notoriety with 2002's Dead Ringer and garnered comparisons to Moby and DJ Shadow with his subsequent release Since We Last Spoke. Now it seems he's put all of that behind him in a display of versatility with the very different The Third Hand. The samples and synths that gained the aforementioned praise are present in his current work, but are much more subdued, perhaps to not overshadow another first for the artist - his own vocals. The album slips smoothly from electro pop to electro funk/hop on it's most noteworthy tracks "Beyond" and "Sweet Piece." The promo for this record boldly declares the works to be "genre transcending." We're not so sure the album transcends as much as gently combines and modernizes what we love most about particularly notable genres (Brian Wilson and Stevie Wonder are also mentioned in the promo), but still pretty dang cool.
Sabiston is an ex-member of Axolotl, and records under the name Ball Lightning, we had a totally kick ass cd-r from BL a while back. A mindblowingly inventive percussionist, Sabiston is also a pretty amazing video artist as well.
This ultra limited 3" dvd-r features three short films, each one in glorious super lo-res black and white, filmed using a Pixelvision camera, one of those failed toys that became a prized possession for those who could find 'em. The Pixelvision uses regular old cassette audio tapes to capture super lo-fi video, high contrast black and white, very creepy and beautiful and alien looking. It's like watching an ultrasound, weird shapes stutter and jump, lines move, static drifts and wiggles, sort of like video feedback, but even more simple and abstract. So gorgeous and haunting. Each film features original music from Sabiston, a swirling fuzzscape of sound, stuttery glitchy skitter flitting over deep rumbling bass thrum, while buried within are soft snippets of looped melody, everything occasionally blissing out into dubbed out pulses and cavernous low end throbs.
Packaged in a mini 3" plastic DVD case, with black and white artwork.
LIMITED TO 90 COPIES!!!! Already out of print, these are the last copies ever... ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search on the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 7000 DYING RATS "Season In Hell" (He Who Corrupts) cd 13.98 A.M. "Orla" (Ikuisuus) cd 15.98 ADULT "Why Bother?" (Thrill Jockey) cd/lp 15.98/13.98 AFFLICTED MAN "The Complete Recordings" (Senseless Whale) 2cd 22.00 ALVARS ORKESTER "Organic Woodtrip 1991-1992" (Kning Disk) cd 17.98 AMORT / THE COMFORT WIVES "Black Blood / Locusta" (Orobas) cassette 4.00 ARBOREA "Wayfaring Summer" (Summer Street) cd 11.98 ASH POOL "Genital Tomb" (Tour De Garde) cassette 5.98 ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "#1-7" (self released) MP3 cd-r 10.98 ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "#11" (self released) cd-r 10.98 ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "#12" (self released) cd-r 10.98 AUGHRA & MOSH PATROL "Is There Anyone Else Outside?" (Magic Bullet) cd 12.98 AZRAEL "Act III: Self & Act IV: Goat" (Moribund) 2cd 14.98 BABY GRANDMOTHERS "s/t" (Subliminal Sounds) cd 16.98 BARK HAZE "s/t" (Important) lp 14.98 BARK HAZE, THE "Total Joke Era" (Important Records) cd 14.98 BARR, MICK / OCTIS "Iohargh Wended" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 BE PERSECUTED "I.I." (No Colours) cd 15.98 BEE GEES "Horizontal" (Reprise) cd 23.00 BEE GEES "Idea" (Reprise) 2cd 23.00 BLACK TO COMM "Wir Konnen Leider Nicht Etwas Mehr Zu Tun..." (Dekorder) 2lp 21.00 CASHMORE, MICHAEL "The Snow Abides" (Durtro Jnana) cd 12.98 CAVE, NICK & THE BAD SEEDS "The Abattoir Blues Tour" (Mute) 2cd+2dvd 33.00 CHECKER, CHUBBY "Goes Psychedelic" (Underground Masters) cd 21.00 CJA "Pink Metal" (PseudoArcana) 2cd-r 16.98 COLLEY, JOE & JASON LESCALLEET "Annihilate This Week" (Brombron) cd 15.98 DAVENPORT FAMILY "At The Foot Of Zodiac Mountain" (Meudiademorte) cassette 5.98 DENVER GENTLEMEN "Introducing" (Smooch) cd 10.98 DIAGNOSE: LEBENSGEFAHR "Transformalin" (Autopsy Kitchen) cd 14.98 EL-P "I'll Sleep When You're Dead" (Definitive Jux) cd/lp 16.98/16.98 ENSEPULCHERED "The Night Our Rituals Blackened The Stars" (Autopsy Kitchen) cd 13.98 FORTID "Voluspa Part II: The Arrival Of Fenris" (No Colours) cd 15.98 FRAZER, PAULA AND TARNATION "Now It's Time" (Birdman) cd 14.98 GHOSTING "Fox Glove" (Digitalis Industries) cd-r 7.98 GRIMFAUG "Defloration Of Life's Essence" (Eerie Art) cd 15.98 GURDJIEFF, G.I. & THOMAS DE HARTMAN "Oriental Suite" (Basta) 4cd+book 113.00 J DILLA "Ruff Draft" (Stones Throw) 2cd 17.98 JAZZFINGER "Ugly For A Living" (Gold Soundz) cd-r 9.98 JAZZFINGER / NUMBER NONE "Penny Dreadful / Lichfields" (Gold Soundz) cd-r 9.98 JENSEN SPORTAG "s/t" (Midisport) cd 12.98 JONES, GLENN "Against Which The Sea Continually Beats" (Strange Attractors Audio) cd 14.98 KUUPUU "Unilintu" (Dekorder) lp 16.98 LEO, TED AND THE PHARMACISTS "Living With The Living" (Touch And Go) cd+ep 14.98 LESBIAN "Power Hor" (Holy Mountain) cd 14.98 MINSK "The Ritual Fires Of Abandonment" (Relapse) cd 12.98 MOEBIUS "Tonspuren" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00 MOEBIUS / PLANK "Material" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00 MOEBIUS / PLANK "Rastakraut Pasta" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00 MOEBIUS / PLANK / NEUMEIER "Zero Set" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00 N.I.L. "s/t" (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98 NEGURA BUNGET "Inarborat Kosmos" (Code 666) cd 13.98 OTOMO, YOSHIHIDE "Multiple Otomo" (Asphodel) dvd+cd 16.98 QUETZOLCOATL "Vast Eternity Bridges" (Abandon Ship) cassette 5.00 RAMESES III "Honey Rose" (Important) cd 14.98 RWAKE "Voices Of Omens" (Relapse) cd 12.98 SHANKAR, ANANDA "A Musical Discovery Of India" (Cloud Forest Recordings) cd 17.98 SILMARIL "The Voyage Of Icarus" (Locust) cd 14.98 SWALLOW THE SUN "Hope" (Candlelight) cd 13.98 TIMES NEW VIKING "Present The Paisley Reich" (Siltbreeze) cd/lp 13.98/13.98 TOLL "Christ Knows" (Cold Spring) cd 15.98 TRANS AM "Sex Change" (Thrill Jockey) cd/lp 14.98/12.98 TROLLMANN AV ILDTOPPBERG "Tolling Beyond The Tombs Of Ancient Grimnity" (Monolith) cd-r 10.98 V/A "Babcotte, Sudbury And Eaton: The English School Of Funerary Origin" (The Guild Of Funerary Violinists) cd-r 10.98 V/A "Bombay Connection Vol. 2, Bouncin' Grooves From Bollywood Films 1959-1972" (Bombay Connection) cd/2lp 16.98/32.00 V/A "Cherrystones Word" (Tlon Uqbar) cd 10.98 V/A "D-I-Y: Do It Yourself" (Soul Jazz) cd/lp 21.00/24.00 VXPXCX "Reticent Manifest" (Abandon Ship) cassette 5.00 WARPIG "s/t" (Relapse) cd 14.98 WATERMANN, JOHN "Calcutta Gas Chamber" (Cold Spring) cd/pic lp 15.98/35.00 WIZARD PRISON "II" (Gravelvoice) cd 8.98 WOODEN SPOON "The Folk Blues Guitar Of...." (Bo'Weavil) cd 17.98 WUTHERING HEIGHTS "The Shadow Cabinet" (Sensory) 2cd 15.98 YOUNG, NEIL "Massey Hall 1971" (Reprise) cd + dvd 24.00 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
Gotta mention the latest from these German wargods of metal. Speedy, yelpy metal in the '80s Metal Blade tradition that is. Some of us here are big fans of this metal for metal's sake band, in part 'cause of the love 'em or hate 'em vocals of lead warbler (it says here "communicative siren channel", actually) Gerrit Mutz, who (as we've said before) sounds like what we'd think Jello Biafra would if he decided to front a power metal band. Gerrit puts his all into his dramatic vox, which range from high-pitched shrieks to melodic crooning to deathly growls. Meanwhile, the other members of Sacred Steel crank out the fist-pumping tuneage, their ragin' retro riffage totally catchy and exciting and utterly without any pretense or sense of irony.
Sacred Steel are all about madness, metal, Satan, speed, slaughter -- sophisticated stuff like that. So we'd suggest that more "mature" folks, cool kids, and of course poseurs should stay far away! If you're a true metalhead though (particularly one who already digs Mutz' vox) this album is a headbanging delight, taking at least one doomy detour with the slowly chugging, grandiosity of the track "The Black Church". Oh, and there's a computer-playable videoclip included for the track "Maniacs Of Speed".
We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
Sci Hi is another NZ outfit we had never heard of, but we are really digging this. Exclusively upper register exploration, a trilling squeaking keening world of video game sounds and simulated bird calls, dense clouds of high end flutter, reverb and delay wrapped around bursts of beeps and tiny squiggles of sound. Distorted and convoluted, tangled and confusional, but still kinda nice to listen to. This lathe cut 7" comes with a full length cd-r containing 10 tracks, another 40+ minute excursion into Sci Hi's strange high end soundworld.
One of our favorite in Southern's Latitudes series, available on super duper limited vinyl!!!! We got 30 copies and will never be able to get more. So jump on these quick...
Full on, over the top, freaked out psychedelic, drum drenched guitarnoise from this massive UK ensemble Shit And Shine, a a gore soaked, bloody nosed, sweat stained sonic knee to the groin. Multiple drummers, lots of guitars, a toy keyboard and one mighty riff. Think prime era Butthole Surfers, add some Stooges stomp and some Hawkwind spaciness, an unstoppable wall of crushing churning psychedelic crunch, thick sludgy basslines, fuzzy filthy guitars, grunted shouted vocals, all in a druggy swirl of effects, random noises and full on brain frying weirdness. A glorious forty minute pummeling.
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 bright red vinyl. And of course, SUPER SUPER LIMITED!!!
The music found on Matt Shoemaker's Spots In the Sun makes for one of our favorite field recording / drone based records in recent memory. Even though the ultra limited version is already out of print, the regular version (which is still quite fancy) is finally here. So everyone who missed out first time around gets one more chance.
As we spent more time extolling the virtues of the packaging in the review of the super limited version, now we'll focus a bit more on the actual music...
Have a glance back at our most verbose descriptions about anything from the avant-garde fringes of music making, and you'll most likely find a common metaphor of specific locations, or rather the memories that the author attributes to that space -- good, bad, holy, abject, transcendent, etc. Upon listening to Spots In The Sun, we find ourselves returning to the well-trod linguistic device of comparing sound to the detached memories of place; however, Shoemaker's exploration of psychogeographic sound never grounds itself upon a specific location -- like a crumbling hospital, reclaimed World War II bunkers, or even his own favored locations of the jungles of Indonesia. Rather, Shoemaker drops the listener into a sunbleached environment, where heat, humidity, jetlag, fatigue, and general environmental claustrophobia prevent any of the specifics to make themselves known. While Shoemaker's landscapes are openly hostile toward the listener, these swarming masses of sound are incredibly alluring, drawing us in even though we may know better than to enter these openly toxic spaces. Shoemaker is always teasing us with small hints as to where we might be, with screeching birds, temple bells, and the patter of rain; but before we can begin to triangulate a position, Shoemaker rips us from our locale with a ruptured crescendo and drops us somewhere else. It is through the drone that Shoemaker achieves all of this and more, his swarming monochrome morphs from complex vibrations into radioluminescent clouds. Spots In The Sun is an exquisite manifestation of abstracted field recordings pushed to the point of grotesque minimalism, and is indeed some of the finest that we've heard (comparable to the likes of BJ Nilsen, Machinefabriek, Loren Chasse, Philip Jeck's Surf, and mnortham).
Latest issue from this amazing modern music magazine, giving the Wire a serious run for their money! This time around Jarboe's on the cover, obscured by trees, while inside: Arbouretum, Harris Wulfson, Blood Brothers, guitarist Peter Walker, jam band The Slip, vocalist Lauren Newton, saxophonist Jean Derome, tripped out poster artists Patrick and Amy Borezo, the Globe Unity Orchestra, composer Milton Babbitt, trombonist Steve Swell, Sean O'Hagen of the High Llamas and then an overwhelming array of reviews, insightful and well written, books, live performances, tons of cds, dvds lps and even mp3's, 7", 3"s and tapes, and finally a whole mess of reissues...
Lots of you are probably pretty obsessed by now with UK label Paradigms and pick up pretty much everything they release. Always interesting, gorgeously packaged, and Snowdrift is no exception.
Veering dramatically from their drone/metal direction, Paradigms surprised us a while back with the recent full length from Plants, a dark, psychfolk duo from Portland who reference everything from Comus to Incredible String Band to M83 to Charlemagne Palestine.
And now, Paradigms have dug up another dark treasure from the Northwest, this time from Seattle, Snowdrift are a dark brooding ensemble, who aren't nearly as far out as the rest of their labelmates. The label mentions Low and Mazzy Star and Amber Asylum and those are pretty good starting points. Imagine a moody shuffling post rock, with moaning cellos, shimmering guitars, sort of laid back and smoky, with occasional squalls of subtly blown out psych, but for the most part sort of drifting and slithering dreamily. The focal point is definitely the vocals, female, dark and throaty, a rich velvety croon, perfectly matched to the warm shimmery musical backdrops. And while the band does explore and experiment here and there, this is nothing so much as moody minor key mope rock. A sort of post rock slowcore pop... On a different label, one could definitely imagine these guys and gal on the radio, maybe even MTV, the dark moodiness just accessible enough for regular folks, but dreamy and dramatic enough to keep it interesting. The songs are fairly conventional, but they are often wrapped in decidedly unconventional layers, be it a thick swaths of shimmering strings, a fuzzy rumbling drone, some clattery abstract ambience. Cool stuff for sure. But might be a bit tame and middle of the road for the truly experimental among you. And if you were hoping for something a little more Hjarnidaudi or Angelic Process, then see elsewhere on this list for the other new Paradigms release from the decidedly more fucked Wraiths.
Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a colorful mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.
Wow! This is probably the best thing we've heard on Kill Rock Stars in AGES. With totally spazzed out guitar playing and impassioned vocals, Marnie Stern has grabbed us by the throats and refuses to let us go. It makes perfect sense that Zach Hill drums on this record as Stern's herky jerky rhythms and relentless spirit share a similar aesthetic and approach to Hill's band Hella and folks like Lightning Bolt and Orthrelm. In fact Marnie Stern has hit the scene almost like a female counterpart to Mick Barr, with the same kind of manic and infectious guitar playing delivered with her unique vision and fist in the air vocals. Kind of like if Erase Errata or the latest Paradise Island e.p. we loved so much were even louder, faster and way more chaotic, or if Mary Timony were kidnapped by Load records. This album does what all the great Kill Rock Stars records of the past did so well, it makes you feel so alive and so young in spirit as your get to watch and hear someone so passionately realize their vision. Highly recommended!
You might recognize Mr. Dominic East as the lead vocalist for that fine Bay Area band Our Lady Of The Highway, but now please acquaint yourself with Swallow and Swallows. That's his solo indie folk songsmith alter ego and these are his personal home recordings circa 2004-2006. As we've mentioned with regards to OLOTH, East bears a striking resemblance to both Mountain Goats' John Darnielle and The Weakerthans' John K. Samson in not only his earnest vocal delivery, but also his songcraft and heart-baring lyrical intimacy. It's even more evident on this release as he keeps the arrangements to a minimum with spare and solitary guitar accompaniment. Whenever we've played this, someone invariably asks if it's a new (or long lost) Mountain Goats record. Now, we're by no means griping, but geez, these guys are virtually doppelgangers! Not a bad thing when it sounds this gooood!
Brand new disc from AQ faves Taiga Remains, the solo guitar project of Students Of Decay label head honcho Alex Cobb. We've been digging the Ribbon Of Dust series of 3" cd-r's since we first got them a while back and have been anxiously awaiting more of TR's gorgeous ambient guitarscapes.
The Nothing And Nowhere is just that, a 40 minute expanse of the sound of nothing and nowhere. Almost. With just an electric guitar and some effect pedals, Cobb transforms his axe into some sort of drone producing dream machine, unfurling wispy, vapor trails of abstract melody, of glistening midnight shimmer, long drawn out tendrils of sound that seem to be on the verge of dissipating and disappearing completely.
Like Spacemen 3 with all the rock sucked out, leaving just a ghostly trace of that buzzing raga like guitar, let loose to drift foglike over moonlit landscapes. Or Loren Connors, playing at the bottom of a well, the sounds just barely making it to the surface, and by then, more soft shadows of the sound than the actual sound itself. Dreamlike, delicate and so completely captivating.
Packaged in a full color sleeve with a printed insert and sealed shut with an actual TWIG!!
LIMITED TO 95 COPIES!!
- MPEG stream: One
- MPEG stream: Two
When an avant-garde free jazz outfit plays, and the audience is moved not just to boo and jeer but to also THROW THINGS at them, that's when real fans of outside improv insanity should go, man, I've got to check this out! That the band in question featured the legendary Japanese guitarist Masayuki Takayangi makes perfect sense, since back in the day he was pretty much THE most shockingly extreme electric guitarist in the realm of "jazz."
As would likely be the case today, too, were he still alive. What we have here then is the notorious "La Grima" ("Tears"). 41 minutes, 45 seconds of EXPLOSIVE densefreejazzfreakout from a true power trio: Masayuki Takayangi on guitar, Kenji Mori on sax, and Hiroshi Yamazaki on drums, recorded live at the Genya Festival on August 14th, 1971. This wasn't a normal music fest, rather it was more of a demonstration organized in protest against the expansion of the Narita airport. And as radical as the protesters were, they apparently couldn't handle Takayangi's "new jazz" music AT ALL. His New Direction For The Arts group was NOT well-received at Genya. Those folks who were throwing stuff would probably be surprised to learn that 36 years later, "La Grima" would be a handsomely-presented cd release, eagerly awaited in fact by fans not even born back then!
Yes, here at last is the full unedited recording -- previously just a tantalizing six minutes were heard on the Genya compilation LP, reissued on cd a few years ago. It's been remixed and remastered, and packaged in a miniature LP-styled gatefold sleeve.
If you're familiar with Takayangi's work, you can guess that this is what he'd term a "Mass Projection" piece, nobody in the group holding anything back, Takayangi's guitar rumbling heavily under Mori's flights of sax-skronk, the splattery drumming of Yamazaki running circles 'round the other two, everything endlessly tumbling forward, into the abyss of amplifier abuse spawned by Takayangi, who simultaneously offers up scrabbling leads, dissonant drones, and fierce feedback attack. We suppose the saxophone is the most "jazz" sounding element, offering some snippets of melody amidst the blasting cacophony, but even then serving to highlight, in contrast, the electric violence of Takayangi's playing. With so much energy being released, maybe it's no surprise that the audience couldn't help but give some back!
Is there no end to the wonderful musical mysteries Finland has to offer? We sure hope not. Whether it's demented black metal, crushing doom sludge, freaky forest folk, or shimmery pop, Finland never disappoints. And now you can add, ultra minimal outsider solo guitar to that list.
Topias Tiheasalo, who we know absolutely nothing about, and google searches also reveal practically nothing, other than the fact that he is 29 years old, is less of a "guitarist" and more of a guitar explorer, a guitar experimentalist. Falling somewhere between the abstract scrabble of Derek Bailey and the moody minimalism of Loren Connors, Tiheasalo, crawls all over the guitar, spending as much time thumping the body, scraping the bridge, and coaxing all manner of buzz and rattle from his guitar as he does either picking or strumming. The opening track is a strange percussive soundscape, punctuated by an awesome deep reverberent buzz drenched throb, as well as some fragmented chunks of slide. While all around these almost-melodies, lurk tons of black space, and all manner or subtle shuffle and accidental squeaks and creaks. Later on, some deliberately stumbling strum becomes a harmonic drenched melody, lurching and stuttering along a very abstract path. Elsewhere the guitar is rubbed to create strange whispery ambience, notes are hurled violently from the guitar, left to flutter to the ground, where they are sprinkled with glistening flurries of harmonics. Lots of angularity and atonality, but their are bits of delicate beauty tucked amidst the twisted and convoluted guitarscapes.
A strange strange record. Not beautiful in any sort of typical way, but damaged and difficult and in that musical obstinance, quite lovely indeed. Fans of Bailey, Connors, Taku Sugimoto, Fabrice Eglin and of course Keith Rowe as well as other atypical six stringers will find much to explore and enjoy...
Always keeping things fresh, mysterious and yet unmistakably his own, AQ fave Amon Tobin has one-up'd himself again. Following his Chaos Theory excursion into the videogame soundtrack realm (for Splinter Cell 3), Tobin returns to our welcoming ears and eyes with the cd/dvd extravaganza Foley Room. With a samplin' palette drawn from found sounds and field recordings, the huge aural assaults he unleashes are at once imposingly dense and oh so intricately beautiful. Despite the different source material, sonically and stylistically this initially recalls the foreboding drum'n'bass electronic architecture of his early releases Bricolage and Permutations. However, at track 10 'Always" he shifts gears momentarily, kicking into a more hip hop inflected grooviness like that of his later works Supermodified and Out From Out Where. Fucking wizardly.
From the same folks who brought us deliciously sleazy discs from Jet Fuel and Sinnerjizm, here's the debut album from LA's Trigger Renegade, a pretty potent heavy rockin' band in their own right. Trigger Renegade don't wander into the territories of kaleidoscopic psychedelia, bubblegum pop, or dusted glam metal, taking a much more workmanlike approach to the art of hard rockin'. The fist-pumping swagger from the grittiest elements of the NWOBHM is certainly where Trigger Renegade is drawing their inspiration; and Destroy Your Mind certainly succeeds in getting at sex, drugs (although beer and whiskey seem more appropriate) and of course rock 'n' roll. Musically, Trigger Renegade push forward a relentless backbeat of high-octane rhythms that might have a locomotive relentlessness complete with non-stop blastbeats on one track and then a blues-rock boogie on the next. On top of the rhythms, Trigger Renegade intertwine plenty of dynamic, twin guitar / Thin Lizzy-ish leads and alternating vocal styles between gravel throated barks and screeched falsettos ala Rob Halford. With plenty of nods to Cheap Trick, The Damned, Iron Maiden, and Witchfinder General, had Trigger Renegade been around some 25 years ago, they could have been huge.
The Union Trade are a young Bay Area foursome who craft mostly instrumental atmospheric post-rock a la Codeine, Mogwai and Slint. Yes, the 'quiet-loud-quiet' dynamics live on in this band! Occasionally a bit mathy and a bit trippy with lots of effected, distorted electric guitar textures. When vocals come into the picture, they're hushed and quite resemble those of Lou Barlow. A promising debut.
Latest missive from these Finnish forest freaks, who continue to churn out, utterly mesmerizing otherworldly murk, every record as weird and wonderful as the last.
Background For Silence is two tracks, nearly fifty minutes, of Uton at their most subtle and understated, a muddy ambient swirl of sound, simple strummed guitars smeared into streaks of grey and brown, draped over a strange mechanical whirring, the sounds eventually blending into a warm droning shimmer, while over the top drift little crackles of feedback, crumbling clatter, various creaks and thumps, and barely audible voices. None of those extraneous sounds detract from the static mesmer though, with the drone eventually taking on more of an electronic vibe, with the guitar and whir being joined by layers of static and glitchy hiss, all blurred into a single slow shifting expanse of dark ambience.
The second track is even more minimal, with the same sound somehow muted into a mumbled low end drift, while a minimal melody is played out over the top by an oscillating tone that buzzes in and out like a tiny swarm of electronic insects. Before too long however, the track becomes more lively, as the sound expands to include bits of clatter, chimes and percussion, low end guitar thrum, wheezing keyboard, skronking horns, fluttering flutes, bits of FX and processed voices, the sound becoming distinctly more 'free folk' than strictly dreamy and droney.
Packaged in a full color sleeve, with printed inner insert, and sealed with a piece of twine.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!! We got a handful and they will probably go fast...
We can never get enough of the colorful, zesty, infectious sounds of golden era Bollywood. Luckily we have two more outlets for our fix, as Bombay Connection has released two volumes of Bollywood hits that we've been groovin' to in the store for a few months now and finally have gotten enough to review and list. This is Volume 1 (2 to follow next list) and features tons of kick ass classic Bollywood funk from action thrillers spanning 1977-1984. You know what that means: incredible backbeats, suspense building bridges, and ultra saucy vocals. All the greats are here: R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle, Kalyanji-Anandji, Sapam-Jagmohan, etc. So fun and so great!
Johnny Greenwood has always been our favorite Radiohead member. Sure maybe Thom Yorke is a genius, but Greenwood is the unsung hero, his guitars and sound manipulations transforming Radiohead from run of the mill alternative rock band to one of the more innovative and captivating bands of the last decade. His solo score to the film Bodysong a few years ago showed the wide range of his music making abilities as well and was one of the first hints at his love of reggae with its subtle moments of glitched out dub electronics. Somehow, someway Trojan records got in touch and decided to let him crack their vaults and put together a collection of his favorite tracks from their deep well of reggae gems. We gotta say he did some mighty fine selecting as this ranks as one of the nicer vintage reggae/dub collections we've had in the store in quite a while. With everyone from Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Delroy Wilson, Marcia Griffiths, The Heptones, Scotty, Scientist, and more...
This does a great job at scratching the surface of how much amazing music came out of Jamaica during the fertile era of the 70's. While it might just be clever marketing to put his name on this as all he did was pick out the songs, if it turns on some Radiohead devotees to the richness of reggae's finest then we have no problem with that at all.
Two of our favorite words! (Though we normally spell Phinland, Finland.) The current Finnish psych
phenomenon -- Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat, Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Kiila, etc. etc. is of course a major AQ obsession. As is vintage psych from, well, heck just about anywhere, but certainly Scandinavia. So this double-disc compilation, subtitled "Finnish Hippie & Underground Music 1967-1974" has got us all excited. There's 29 tracks from almost as many artists, a fantastic trip into the early daze of the Finnish freak-scene. Perhaps another good subtitle would have been: "When Drugs Came To Finland". There's even a few songs about marijuana to set the mood, starting off disc one. But Psychedelic Phinland is just as political, and parodic, and perverse as it is potheaded. There's plenty of Flower Power pop and/or fuzzed-out blues rock, but you'll also find jazz-damaged prog and mystic folk, revolutionary theatre and electronic insanity. There's so much here, we can't mention it all, but look out for heavy psych jammers Baby Grandmothers, "rocking lavatory anarchists" Suomen Talvisota 1939-40, and progrock pioneers Wigwam... then there's there's Eastern-inflected psych-folk from Pekka Streng and the Yippie ranting of Markku Uto...
And then on disc two things get REALLY weird. Yeah this one's even further out, crossing over a bit into "Arktinen Hysteria" territory (you maybe remember, that great collection of early Finnish avant-weirdness from a while back, also released by Love Records). It starts off innocently enough with our new favorite band(name), Those Lovely Hula Hands. Really, that's their name, and they included several 13 and 14 year old sisters playing violins and recorders, singing gently amidst tape-recorded bird-twitter... a song about Tarzan! Then we hear from Pekka Airaksinen and also his band The Sperm, doing extended feedback and tape music experiments. We remember The Sperm from that Arktinen comp and had wanted to hear more. Later on, there's some wonderfully primitive, ceremonial hippy jamming, particularly from a band called Sikiot, who have a krautrockish vibe like Siloah or Amon Duul. And there's plenty more, some other names of note on these cds include J.O. Mallander, Charlies, Topmost, Juice Leskinen & Coitus Int, Apollo, Blues Section, Hector & Oscar, and Kruunuhaan Dynamo...
All of this is pretty much totally obscure, in fact a lot of it consists of previously unissued archival recordings from the vaults of Finland's Love label and other sources... A true labor of Love. Comes with a twenty page, full color cd booklet with English-language notes on each track and tons of cool old photos and graphics.
Recommended!
Well, that just does it, doesn't it?! In case their existing catalog, which includes reissues of Selda, Jean-Claude Vannier, Yamasuki Singers, Mustafa Ozkent and Bruno Spoerri, didn't already do it, the Finders Keepers label's decision to release the soundtrack of this awesome early '70s Czech New Wave film (one of Cup's faves) totally confirms that they rule... or at least confirms that they share our taste in music and movies!
Now, we all know that a soundtrack can be an integral, transformative power in a film, no question, but when one can stand alone sans visuals it takes on a whole 'nother life. Needless to say, we're not talking about those recent lazily compiled nostalgia-button pushing collections of familiar pop songs. Seventies films and their soundtracks were a breed all their own. Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders is a perfect example.
A mesmerizing motif-heavy procession of flutes, tinkling bells, harpsichord, organ, and vocal interludes, Lubos Fiser's soundtrack contributes to the establishment and intensification of the nightmare / dream atmospheres of Jaromil Jires' film. At once lulling and unsettling, recurring timorous prepubescent choral incantations are startled by ominous organ exclamations. On its own, the melange of the carnivalesque, music box-y and chamber drones totally captures a distinctly haunting, pixie-dusted delirium.
Sound good? If so, you need this now, and of course see the film as soon as possible (it was recently released on dvd)! Definitely for those who were spellbound by the soundtracks to The Wicker Man (the original movie and not the recent Nicholas Cage remake!) or Suspiria. Yes, three very different works, but all equally affecting. Absolutely recommended!
On their debut outing for Important, Vanishing Voice (sans Wooden Wand) give us another heaping spoonful of freaked out forest psyche madness. Composed of two tracks (with a mysteriously extra song title but no song), the first is the epic 40 minute title track (or it could be called "Peace Symbols", -we're very confused on the song listing), which takes on a long whirling vortex of clattering percussion (provided by Magik Marker's Pete Nolan) and damaged electronic passages before propelling momentously forward with a Krautrock-like acid jam. The second song (we think it's called "The Last Evil") begins with a twisted sing-a-long that reminds us of "On Top of Old Smokey" but perhaps sung by the mutant children from the recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes, before developing into further mutated lo-fi weirdness.
Last list we featured Docdail and Triangle, now here's more rare Francais Metal de Proto for y'all, this time from Les Variations! That's right, another French band from the late '60s/early '70s playing an unexpected blend of hard rockin' proto-metal, psychedelic freakiness, Moorish exotica, and groovy pop. This double disc set includes Variations' first two albums -- Nador (1970) and Take It Or Leave It (1973) -- plus 13 bonus tracks.
Nador is the primary reason to get this, as Take It Or Leave It more-or-less lives up to its title. But Nador is a seriously smokin' album, with the exception perhaps of one cheesy commercial pop tune and a detour into oldies rock n' roll territory (the Jerry Lee Lewis piano-pounding of "Mississippi Woman"). At its best though, which is most of the time, Nador is the high-energy, heavy-duty French answer to the likes of Led Zep, the Rolling Stones, and the MC5! Zut alors! Pounding stormers like "Generations" and "What A Mess Again" are gonna please anyone into long-haired, bell-bottomed riff-rock. Meanwhile, Variations mix it up with segues into mysterious Moroccan hippie-raga, as on the acoustic instrumental title track. Basically imagine Leaf Hound with some North African ancestry. We've read that Nador was the heaviest album from a French band ever when it was originally released, and we believe it.
The bonus tracks following Nador are also equally badass, with lots of wild psych guitar and headbangin' rhythm action goin' on. "Come Along" sounds pretty much *exactly* like something by local San Francisco retro-stoner power trio Genghis Khan, actually. There's also the excellent psych-pop ballad "Down The Road" as well.
Disc two's Take It Or Leave It certainly rocks and rolls too, but starts to suffer from some of the fashion faux pas the '70s were known for, shall we say. Way too much honky tonk piano this time around, and overproduced arrangements. The psych side of things is long gone. But it has got its moments though. And several of the bonus tracks found on this disc most definitely live up to the killer standards of disc one ("I Was Down" and "The Jam Factory" ferinstance). So while Nador's great by itself, we're happy to have these two discs worth of Variations! Vive la Francais Metal de Proto!!
A new sssslow, drugggggy pssssych rrrrrock trrrip from The Vocokesh! From the grainy black and white cover photo of the band in their paisley shirts to each of the eleven heady instrumentals on All This And Hieronymus Bosch, The Vocokesh ooze old-school space rock psychedelia with ease. Descend into their thick smokey haze of heavily effected guitars that shimmer, drone and wail.
Hopefully we've already turned you on to the wonders of When, the sample-happy, electronics-enabled psych pop project of Norway's Lars Pedersen. If not, you've got some other reviews to read on our website, look 'em up! Please do! Because this new album, as with its immediate predecessors, are must haves for anyone into the more eccentric side of Beatles-influenced stuff, like Olivia Tremor Control and the Dreamies. This is super sunshiney pop with an experimental twist, or make that twistedness.
We've been into When for years and years, way back to the late '80s when When made dark prog soundscapes (beloved of Nordic black metallers). But starting with all-time AQ fave album The Lobster Boys in 2001, or maybe even a bit before that, When went all colorful and catchy and kaleidoscopic, keeping the darkness in a subconscious reserve to psychologically augment the poppiness with its opposite -- the dreaminess always has nightmare lurking at its edges... And so as we expected, Trippy Happy is all about totally brilliantly crafted surreal symphonic sound collages, with Beatlesy vocals and music box melodies, pleasant guitar strum and mysterious textures, weirdness and melancholia... and so much genius POP that we don't understand why When isn't huge. Well, When's big around here anyway!!
Heads up for White Flight! He might look a bit familiar to some who know mainman Justin Roelofs as the guitarist for The Anniversary, but he's doin' something quite different from the direct, peppy emo-pop of his other band. Still quite energetic and emotive, but this pop is more sprawling and slightly tweaked in a meandering Beck or Ween-ish fashion with vocals that fall in a similar yelpy range of Hidden Cameras, Wolf Parade and Arcade Fire. While maintaining a core of slouchy indie rock, Roelofs dabbles with shuffling hip hop beats and bleary psych-folk detours. This is an album brimming with often seemingly disjointed ideas -- some more fully realized than others, some we wish he'd elaborated on further. For those with short attention spans who dig cool aural fragments.
Not sure exactly what this is, tough to keep track of all the cd-r's and limited lps and everything, but it does appear to be a brand new full length, although it's vinyl only for now. Apparently one single track, spread out over two sides, Black Wing Over The Sand continues to display Wolf Eyes' developing musicality, while managing to not lose a single bit of brutality, which is quite a feat. This is another dark slab of beautiful malevolence, equal parts corrosive rumble and shimmery drone, creepy dark ambience and intense industrial clatter. Side one, the first movement, begins with grinding guitars, blown out streaks of spacy effects, huge synth swells and jagged bits of percussion, occasionally overwhelmed by massive waves of low end buzz that somehow manage to swallow everything else up. Near the end of side one, the record winds down into what could only be described as some sort of Wolf Eyes dub, lots and lots of space, a lurching non-rhythm spread waaaaay out, crashing crumbling bursts scattered throughout. Really cool. Wouldn't mind hearing a whole record of that...
The second side returns to more familiar Wolf Eyes territory, upping the buzz and the industrial clatter. still creeping along, everything wrapped in a black cloak of fuzz and rumble, but much more aggressive, intense, thicker, with layer after layer of constantly shifting sound. Intense, but still managing to be surprisingly musical and listenable.
LIMITED TO 900 COPIES. Vinyl only, packaged in a cool black and white sleeve with some strange animal torture woodcut on one side and a mysterious mountain on the other. Full color printed inner sleeve too. Really nice...
Back in print and back in stock at a slightly cheaper price. But still just as warped and wonderful and weird as before...
The return of Wolfmangler, aka Smolken, who also just so happens to be the man behind Dead Raven Choir. Hot on the heels of a split with UK ultra doomlords Moss, Wolfmangler continue to explore the dark world of doom in their own truly peculiar manner. With bass, electric bass, drum, flute, trombone and bassoon (each band member is also credited with things like umber bulk, water nymph, floating eye, tengu, trapper and of course leprechaun) the Wolfmangler ensemble create a truly unique doom, woven together from wheezing woodwinds, throbbing low end, simple occasional drum beats and weird grumbled growly vocals. The result is not so much a massive doom sound as a creepy ancient court music, plodding and funereal. You can almost imagine some black clad procession trudging along the winding cobblestone streets within some walled fortress. Kerry though it sounded like punk rock slowed waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down.
Texturally it's unlike anything we've ever heard. The closest reference might be Skepticism, the way it sounded like their music is being heard through the floor or from a building next door. Wolfmangler's sound has a similar timbre, a bit like some high school marching band dipped in tar and forced to march through a desert of black sand, or maybe like holding a stylus in one hand, and a scratched up 45 of Fleetwood Mac's tusk in the other, and trying to manually play the record by dragging the needle along each groove. Warbly and dizzyingly warped, Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves is some sort of hellish circus music, the soundtrack to a Fellini film, showed one frame at a time, a New Orleans Funeral Jazz band 78 played at 16 rpm on an old dusty victrola. So gorgeously slow, so pretty and creepy and dreamily doomy.
The second of two new releases from the Uk's amazing Paradigms label (who in the past have brought us records by Titan, Hjarnidaudi, The Angelic Process, Throne Of Katarsis, Amber Asylum, Woburn House and more), the first, the moody dramatic post rock smolder of Seattle's Snowdrift, reviewed elsewhere on this list, and this here slab of bleak black brutality, Plaguebearer by Wraiths.
Paradigms began as a sort of metal / drone label, having dipped into decidedly less heavy musical waters lately with the psychfolk of Plants, the post rock pummel of Woburn House, the ambient classical of Hallvardur Asgeirsson, and the aforementioned Snowdrift.
So for those of you who have played your Angelic Process and Hjarnidaudi and Utlagr and Throne of Katarsis discs to death, we bring you salvation, in the form of Wraiths. This has very little in common with any of the above mentioned bands, other that it is dark, heavy, noisy and strangely pretty.
Five tracks clocking in at nearly an hour, Wraiths are some sort of black ambient outfit, unfurling epic swaths of grinding crumbling distortion, thick sheets of squealing feedback, long stretches of cavernous rumble and all bleak black stops in between. Imagine some strange mash up, equal parts Wolf Eyes, Merzbow, MZ412 and Birchville Cat Motel. But all tucked within a spiky, black and brooding carapace.
An expansive drift through bleak landscapes of dubbed out rhythms, and shimmering industrial whir, black swells beneath, grey swirls above, often building to full on cacophonous noise-psych freakouts. Murky worlds of drone and distortion, smeared into soothing and serene drones. Haunting vocals and anguished howls drifting way down in the mix. Full on wall of keening sound, high end harmonies of corrosive downtuned buzz and ear splitting upper register skree, harsh and heavy but completely mesmerizing in that crumbling wasteland, edge of the black abyss, doom drenched blackened ur-drone sort of way. Killer stuff.
Unlike most of the Paradigms releases, which come in cardboard sleeves wrapped in hand stamped, brown paper, this disc is in a white DVD case, with black and white printed insert (like the Hallvardur Asgeirsson) and LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
What a long strange trip it's been for Malefic and Xasthur. What's even stranger it seems, is that he ended up finding a new home on the very hip indie label Hydra Head. Sure HH has released its share of dark heaviness, but black metal, especially of the ultra personal, cult and grim kind, is so concerned with staying true, and not selling out. So it's a bit of a coup that HH nabbed Xasthur. Especially after a whole mess of records on Moribund, Total Holocaust Blood Fire Death, Profound Lore and Southern Lord. There has apparently been a bit of a backlash in the true cult BM underground. But fuck 'em. Hydra Head is a killer label and Malefic probably just got tired of being screwed left and right. Plus, oh what a joy it is to watch the true grim warriors weep at the loss, their corpsepaint smearing in long grey streaks. But it really is their loss more than any one 'cuz damn if this isn't the best Xasthur record since Nocturnal Poisoning. And that's saying a whole lot considering how much we've loved pretty much everything he's ever done.
The thing With Nocturnal Poisoning is that it was this perfect mix of sorrowful melancholia and black buzz, the sound was murky and muddy and fuzzy, but above it, were delicate melodies, dreamlike minor key filigree over a bottomless black pit. It was that strange juxtaposition that made it so special. Take that pretty element away, and you're left with just another black disc of Burzum worship. It's a little like the oil paining on the cover. You could see the texture of the canvas and the individual brushstrokes beneath the art. And with the music, it was the same thing, you could see the various elements, feel their texture, see the thick grainy backdrop upon which Malefic placed all of his dreamlike melodies and murky anguished howls.
Every record after that contained similar elements, and amazing songs, but it seemed like the recordings got more brittle, lots of high end buzz, not so much of that glorious malefic murk.
Subliminal Genocide almost sounds like it was recorded right after Nocturnal Poisoning and shelved for the last few years. It's THAT heavy and dreamy and melancholy and murky and goddamn beautiful.
There's not a lot of black metal that you might consider truly beautiful, but the songs on Subliminal Genocide, aren't just blasting thrashing metal, they are gorgeous lilting laments, epic and majestic and minor key. Taken out of a black metal context, they'd sound like some sort of super emotional epic post rock, but as they are, buried under thick layers of blackened buzz and wrapped in huge swaths of fuzzy sonic fog, they become even darker and more desolate, lonely and mournful. Almost none of the record is faster than a loping midtempo, about half the tracks are slow motion dirges, downright doom, with the double kick coming in more as a thick black low end cloud than any sort of actual blast, and a handful of tracks are nothing but swirling whorls of sad black ambience.
And because of the fuzzy indistinct production, and the thick murky halo around every track, lots of Subliminal Genocide sounds like some bastardized black metal version of M83, or Tim Hecker, or a little like Jeck and Marclay spinning old scratched up Burzum lps slowed waaaaaay down.
This record is simultaneously so dark and depressed and utterly evil sounding, but also fuzzy and psychedelic and totally blissed out, it's sort of hard to imagine, especially listening to this right now, that there could ever possibly be a better combination.
Our first exposure to Xela, the musical outfit of Type label head honcho John Twells, was the most recent full length disc The Dead Sea, which took the sound of, well, The Dead C, and got it all tangled up with the blissy fuzz of the Gooom label, and the warm shimmer of Pop Ambient, all coalescing into some perfectly abstract dreamy off kilter pop flecked free noise. Buried amidst all of the other elements was some electronica skitter, but it was a tiny part of the bigger sound.
But as we've dug deeper into his past efforts, we've discovered, that Xela began as much more of an electronica / IDM sort of project. The recently reviewed reissue For Frosty Mornings And Summer Nights was heavy on the beats, carving out a sonic niche somewhere between his later more abstract sound and the warm sun dappled electronic shuffle of Boards Of Canada. And this two song 7" definitely falls within the same sonic parameters. One side is all record crackle over murky thumps, bits of strange industrial clatter, and deep almost house music like swells, but with a HUGE low end that rumbles your ribcage and wraps its thick tendrils around everything. There are some stuttery rhythms, some chopped vocals, bits of looped melody all swirled into the mix, the result sounding like a way more abstract Boards Of Canada. Which is definitely a good thing.
The flipside is even more reminiscent of the Boards, with muted melodies, epic string swells, and all sorts of skittery shuffling Autechre-y rhythms. All amidst layer after layer of warm thick sound, dense and blissed out. Melodic and dramatic and melancholy, dreamy and so so nice.
SUPER LIMITED. Packaged in a plain white sleeve.
The beautifully damaged worlds of Xiu Xiu and Grouper are magically melded together on this limited edition ep. The trademark drugged out dreamy drones of Liz Harris aka Grouper perfectly compliment the mopey dark instrumentation of Xiu Xiu. Like their collaboration with Larsen last year, Xiu Xiu prove that besides their intense lyrics and over-the-top vocal delivery, they have a knack for creating a truly creepy and unsettling ambiance. Vocals and voices are just another element of the haunting mood these two effortlessly conjure up. Like the ghost sounds of a carnival that rode off into the sunset hundreds of years ago but whose imprint has never been totally erased. Together Xiu Xiu and Grouper weave sounds that occupy some perfect space between dreams and nightmares. Highly recommended! And we only got a handful direct from the bands, so you know what that means...
The Zodiacs unleash sweeping storms of feedback-filled, blown-out, freeform psych-guitar rawk on their debut album Gone, as if they're out to prove that this sort of thing (extreme, deviant Crazy Horse worship?) isn't the exclusive province of Japanese heavies like Up-Tight, LSD-march and Fushitsusha. And prove it they do on these four long, drugged-out tracks of guitars-pressed-to-amplifiers orgiastic volume dealing. Great late night listening that will definitely wake the neighbors. Don't worry, they'll be too scared to complain.
This power trio -- stage names Zodiac Speedcreep, Ezekiel Blackouts III, and Grim Jim Gypsy -- are apparently members of such hippy-folk-drone outfits as Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Wooden Wand, and Hush Arbours. Here though they cranking it up, letting the cosmic Hawkwind howl loud and long through their instruments, burying their blues based jamming under a holy mountain of distortion and pounding cymbal crashes. Speaking of Holy Mountain, it's no wonder the Zodiacs are on that label, also home to Residual Echoes and the David Redford Triad amongst likeminded others.
They've got a sixties motorcycle gang concept going on here, image-wise, and we'd imagine they're even more inspired by the sound of their hogs' engines roaring than they are by biker bands of the era like Blue Cheer...
