We are suckers for the sound of kids making their own rock or funk or soul or whatever. Of course we love The Langley School Music Project, and Rock Jack, and Evil Wicked Warrior, but we especially love it when little kids write, record and play their own songs. Jr. And His Soulettes were lead by the 10 year old Harold Moore Jr. and his younger brothers and sisters who ranged in age from 6-9 years old. They played around Oklahoma in the early 70's and pressed a record that never really saw the light of day, as their uncle ruined most of them trying to shrink wrap them using a meat packing machine at the plant he worked at. Luckily someone got their hands on the recording and it's now finally available on cd! And boy is this some seriously great raw & funky r&b, deep in the garage, complete with wah-wah organ, fuzzy guitar, driving instrumentals and some undeniably charming vocals. These were some talented and soulful kids!
Karpov is a wonderful new Bay Area combo whose specialty is enchanted gypsy minstrel music. Their melodies roam and reel beautifully in earthy, jewel tones. If you swoon to the sounds of Beirut and A Hawk And A Hacksaw, this might be your ears' next delight!
Not much is known about Last Step. Apparently it's the work of one guy in Canada who prefers to stay very anonymous, even when dealing with his label Planet Mu, as it's reported they don't even know who he is and when they've talked to him on the phone he uses a vocoder and has all royalty checks sent to him via the St. Bernadetta Synth Hospital. But then again, Last Step might be the work of Aaron Funk (aka Venetian Snares). Luckily, anonymity isn't the only intriguing thing about Last Step, as it's his use of vintage old-school analog equipment that has won us over. Think Wagon Christ, Giorgio Moroder & Afrika Bambaataa all locked in a room with their old gear and your start to get an idea of what kind of old-school flavored electronica Last Step is all about.
We won't go into too much detail with this one, since we only got 10 copies, which is about a quarter of the entire pressing. This is essential listening for all you WEIRD music obsessives. Some seriously high concept outsider, minimal experimental electronic music. But much like those Funerary Violin cds, the music is only half of the story. This is a 3 cd-r / dvd-r set, contained in a three ring binder, filled with tons of text and documents from some defunct research station. It's almost like that TV show Lost. It seems real, but it's so bizarre and unbelievable.�
Might be easier to just quote the label's blurb:
"Gathering together the documentation surrounding a top secret research�institute devoted to perception and memory research (and magick...) The�Lipton Files is perhaps the most extravagant folly undertaken by�PseudoArcana yet. Packaged in an A5 ringbinder this set contains 3CDRs, 1DVDR�and a multitude of supporting images and texts.�These documents illuminate the history of the experimental work undertaken�by one Dr Lipton and his colleagues (as well as the history of their�opponents- 'The Brotherhood of the Order of the Wing') via research papers,�oppositional pamphlets, website screenshots, and the xeroxed documents and�photos of what is presumably a private investigator. The story unveiled is�one of radical science, utopian visionaries, the magical arts, shadowy�conservative networks, and ultimately of governmental cowardice.�The 3 CDRS present the audio component of 3 separate experiments undertaken�by the Lipton Institute. To the uninitiated these sound not unlike long (60�min+) experiments in minimal electronic music...�The DVDR (10 min) re-caps something of the history of the Lipton project�through film and image and also presents a short but extraordinarily vivid�sequence of video footage�of 'memory capture' from Lipton's experiments�utilising EEG technology."
Sound amazing? That's cuz it is. It's a bit overwhelming actually, we've only just cracked the surface, but we're hooked, even if it is all made up. It's more fun to believe. The music is all bleeps and bloops, crackle and hiss, primitive electronic music, creepy and haunting, minimal and super interesting. The dvd is a trip, with snippets of speeches, weird flickering slide shows of old photos, all set to Lipton's minimal electronica, lots of old decayed film stock and crackly hissy sound. The accompanying paperwork is rife with conspiracies and drama, as if someone had snuck in to the complex in the middle of the night and liberated them from some locked drawer. Packaged in a ring binder and sealed in plain brown paper (as if it was just handed to you in a dark parking garage!) Fun and fascinating and freaked out, and so brilliantly assembled and presented.�
Conet Project? The Ghost Orchid?�I Saw It All Happen From Beginning To End and Sometimes I can't Believe What I Saw? The Guild Of Funerary Violinists? Well, you can now add the Lipton files to that list.�
And remember, we only got 10 copies, and once these are gone they are gone forever!
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Hooray, Japan's EM Recordings is back with two new discs! You never know what sort of stuff they're gonna dig up for reissue, only that it's probably going to be pretty far-out and interesting. The releases we're reviewing this week both fit that general description, thought they couldn't be more different. One's an amusing and strange attempt at calypso-punk (!) from 'Wild' Billy Childish, the other, this, is an anthology of early sound-experiments from New Zealand-born avant garde composer Annea Lockwood. She studied in England and Europe during the sixties and early seventies, and since 1973 has been a professor at Vassar College in New York. Her music, as heard here, is on the conceptual side, abstract but fascinating and listenable. Her 1970 album The Glass World (previously reissued on cd in 1997 by What Next? Recordings) appears here in its entirety, plus her 19 minute droning musique concrete tape piece "Tiger Balm", originally released on a 10" record in 1970 that came with issue number 9 of SOURCE: Music of the Avant Garde magazine.
Moody and mysterious, her Glass World is a weird and wonderful place, indeed. Clinking, tinkling, scraping, shimmering, humming, droning... every sound you could imagine somehow generating with pieces of glass, and more! It originated as a performance piece she developed in 1966, of "discreet sound actions" all using glass as the prime source material which has been bowed, scraped, shattered, tapped, etc. There's 23 individual tracks, each one with a straightforward title ("Glass Rod Vibrating", "Water Gong", "Wine Glass", "Bottle Tree Showered With Fragments") more or less explaining what's going on, usually with a glass object noun and sound-producing verb. It's a veritable catalog, sort of a Smithsonian Folkways approach: The Sounds Of North American Glass Objects! Meanwhile "Tiger Balm" features a woman's orgasmic sighs, tinkling bells, and of course the purring of a big cat... it's pretty trippy!
This includes two booklets, one with vintage photos, scores, and Lockwood's own liner notes. The other documents the realization of her conceptual art piece "Piano Transplants" (i.e. "Piano Burning", "Piano Garden", etc.). As with all EM releases, this is really nicely presented (and now, EM's putting things out in non-jewel case, cardboard digi-packaging).
Oh, and EM fans, look out for this summer's "EM Under Water Series" of five surfing-related reissues from '60s/'70s Australia, all really cool stuff.
It had to happen, even if only to be fair to those of us without lightning fast reflexes and supernatural senses regarding tracking down ultra limited, barely available cd-r's. Over the last 4 years or so, Machinefabriek, aka Rutger Zuydervelt, in addition to releasing several amazing 'proper' records, a cd, a 7" and maybe a few other things, has unleashed an impossible amount of self released ultra limited cd-r's, all in micro editions, 100 copies, 50 copies, some even less, and while we've done our very best to grab as many as we could of every single one, we missed a bunch! And of the ones we did get, they sold out in the blink of an eye. So here's your chance, a massive sprawling double disc collection, gathering up bits and pieces, the best tracks from an armload of releases, all sequenced and woven together, into what could very well have been actual Machinefabriek albums.
It's hard to tell exactly which cd-r's are included, and since only certain songs were selected, even those of you who nabbed every cd-r in sight, odds are there is plenty here that you haven't heard. Definitely lots of stuff we didn't recognize, and all of it, as we've come to expect, simply amazing. Long drawn out stretches of warm fuzzy ambience, muted glitchery, melancholy melodies, soft sweeping epics, wreathed in dense FX and thick swirls of shimmery whir and whirl. One of the masters of our new favorite sound, that sort of foggy buzzy dreamy drone thing we can't seem to get enough of. Fans obviously absolutely need this, and folks who were daunted by the limited nature of past releases, or just have a thing against cd-r's, this is the perfect introduction, a chance to hear what you've been missing.
And there -are- plenty of surprises. While both discs do flow beautifully, there are some strange sonic moments, the dreamy wheezy Eastern tinged post rock drift of "Oi Polloi", the ultra gristly and crackle infused glacial crawl of "Chinese Unpopular Song", the almost Merzbowian intensity of "Hieperdepiep", the THX-theme-stretched-into-gorgeous-metallic-drone of "Wintervacht", all seemingly strangely out of character for Zuydervelt, but in the bigger sonic picture that is Weleer, they sound perfect, all nestled comfortably amidst rich, thick sonic swells and smears. So great!
First we've heard from these drifting ambient drone dudes from Ohio, but we're definitely digging it. Ultra minimal swells of sound. Dark and shimmery, distant melodic fragments glistening, everything a lugubrious creep. Haunting and mysterious, but soft focus and delicate. There's a definitely Stars Of The Lid vibe, the sort of endless expanses of rolling oceanic swells, as well as a bit of Growing at their most blissed out and dreamlike.�
The sound of Maravich is an active ambience, with reverbed guitars shimmering over metallic buzz, throbbing and pulsing, smeared with bits of delay, creating subtle rhythms, and constantly shifting textures. If they had a drummer, you could almost imagine some of these tracks, turning into lopingly propulsive post rock grooves, but instead, they remain in the realm of drift and shimmer, the two guitars reflecting off the other, creating lush harmonies and plenty of ethereal Fripp and Eno like interplay. So nice.�
This duo (one half New Zealand, one half L.A.) played here last night, with AQ faves Expo '70 (we missed it, writing reviews you know, bad timing, list week, argh) but from what folks tell us, they surprised everyone by totally dominating, and entrancing everyone with their humid guitar ambience and shimmering metallic dronescapes. And hearing this cd it's not difficult to hear why.�
Metal Rouge is the duo of Andrew Scott (who you might remember as half of the duo Nest, with Nigel Wright) and Helga Fassonaki, who manage to work some pretty serious musical magic together. Plenty of bands do the drone thing, sometimes it's a static hum, other times it's a wall of guitar left to buzz and rumble, but it takes a special something to harness those sounds and sculpt them into something more, to coax emotion from them, to create tension, to turn sounds into actual songs. And Metal Rouge manage that task just fine.
Much like Expo '70, Metal Rouge owe as much to old school krautrock ambience as they do the modern makers of abstract noise. Their guitars and various sonic implements, unfurling slow pulses, motorik throbs, deep swells, a lush low end that seems to let all the other sounds gradually sink into it, melodies drift sleepily, the notes wavering and slowly shimmering, everything bathed in the reverbed glow of some hot late night, lit blue by the moon, the stars glistening like streaks of feedback beneath the roiling ambience. These are actual songs, like some old dusty 78 dipped in tar and played back as slow as it will go, pop music rendered glacial and effulgent. Bits of twang and strum floating lazily by on a slow moving black tide, an�incandescent raga like buzz always glimmering in the background, Metal Rouge is like some heavily sedated version of Popol Vuh or Tangerine Dream, their lush, sultry shimmer washing over you and transporting you to some mysterious otherworld. Absolute bliss.�
Packaged in a super swank box, with printed insert under the cd, a fold out booklet, a black and white paste on cover (all of them different) and sealed in a thick plastic sleeve affixed with a strip of tape hand stamped with the name of the band.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered.
Extend by Milanese was hands down one of our favorite records of last year. A confusingly brilliant mashup of grime, dubstep, hip hop, big beat and jungle. Beats massive and filthy, loops and samples weird and fucked up and so goddamn perfect. Complicated and weird enough for armchair listening, but funky and groovy enough to send dancefloors into paroxysms of pleasure.�
We weren't even expecting a follow up this soon, but this ep showed up and knocked us on our asses. If anything it's even cooler and more convoluted than the full length. It is mostly remixes after all. "Mr. Good News" (a version of a track off the full length) is a loping dubstep shuffle, with wailing sirens, super blown out synth stabs, pounding rhythms, and some demonic toasting over the top. "Sight Beyond Sight (Hardvision Remix)" is some skittering buzzing jungle, all super drilled� out beats, and stuttering chopped rhythms. "Mr Bad News (Clark Remix)" is an even filthier, and slightly junglized version of the same track from Extend. "Barry Dub" might be our favorite track on the disc, a lurching mechanical dubbed out groove, with thick basslines, simple ultradistorted drums, and some seriously creepy vocals, intoning "Murder him..." among other things. "So Malleable (Cold Mix)" spends its first half sort of drifting and shimmering, but then launches into some killer raga dancehall drum and bass, with ominous strings and super clipped rhythms. "Double Face" is killer, a buzzing electro jam, but has some questionable diva like vocals and house-y synths. Then "Dead Man Walking (DJ Distance Remix)"�probably our favorite track from Extend gets the remix treatment. The differences are subtle, the backing tracks a bit more streamlined and stripped down, and the vocals wrapped in strange metallic FX. And finally, "Billy Electron (Venger Remix)" is an old school electro hip hop jam, with cool weird synth melodies, and some ultra blown out buzzing synths and some crazy monster toasting. This stuff is so awesome!
It may be an ep, and it may be mostly remixes, but we'll take all the Milanese we can get...
Hmmm, if Euro smooth operators Air were indie popsters their music might sound something like this! Going Places definitely has an international flair, but at the same time it charms with a less sleek, more bedroom-y kind of feel. The man behind this album is Montag, one lone fellow whom his parents call Antoine Bedard. A couple of years ago he put a call out beckoning contributors and collaborators for his recording project We Have Sound aka his third full length. He got responses back in spades from around the globe from the hippest now-est artists -- M83's Anthony Gonzales, Stars' Amy Millan, Ghislain Poirier, Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy, Beach House's Victoria Legrand, Ida Nilsen of Great Aunt Ida, Leah Abramson, and Au Revoir Simone. All of them lend their sweet singing to Montag's dreamy electronic pop tunes.
Quite akin to Stephin Merritt's The Sixths or Dntel's latest album Dumb Luck (on which the mastermind wrote and performed the and got friends and fellow artists to sing!), and definitely for fans of Dntel, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and the Morr Music label.
Mrtyu is Antony Milton's musical Mr. Hyde, allowing him to weave blackened musickal rituals, and strange downtuned noise drenched dronedoom when he's not creating gorgeous soundscapes, crafting jangly pop, or keeping the underground alive with his PseudoArcana label. Ritual Terra Continuii is not as doomy as some of the other Mrtyu releases, but it's still plenty dark and scary. Disembodied vocals drift amidst slithering low end riffing, bells and chimes drift on thick swells of squealing feedback, everything a glorious murky lo-fi crawl. Dripping with distortion, a lurching lope through some damaged wasteland of sound. Crumbling walls of guitar buzz, bent strings, minor key melodies, simple music box percussion, and that voice, like Whitehouse being broadcast through a tin can and twine, barely audible through the sheets of gloom and mire. So good.
Killer blood splattered hand painted tape in a cryptic black and white sleeve, with a black and white insert, and a folded up short story printed on super nice textured paper. LIMITED TO 120 COPIES!!!
Once again, further evidence that the Finnish underground is populated by more than freak forest gnomes and droney hypno psych-rockers...
There is a whole black underworld, a land of evil underground forests swathed in clouds of buzzing riffs, beneath the snowy peaks, and wide expanses of undisturbed woodland, there is a mysterious black cavern, peopled by corpsepainted metal warriors, spikes and leather everywhere, the trees are black with soot, and the sky is lit by firelight, where blurry blasts of black metal wreath this lost world in a hazy hellish glow.
Amidst these black warriors, lurk this particular horde, the tongue twistingly monickered Muinainen Ruhtinas, who spew a gloriously murky and midtempo, raw and primitive black metal. Raw, Finnish, black metal, that should be enough for most of you, Beherit, Uncreation's Dawn, Clandestine Blaze, Pest, that glorious raw buzzing sound, but Muinainen Ruhtinas infuse that raw buzz, with a strange forlorn melodic melancholy. As sad sounding and despondent as it is buzzing and black, minor key and mournful, strangely haunting with deep chantlike vocals buried in the mix, and a warm fuzzy moodiness that seems to wrap every bit of black buzz in thick dreamlike murk.
LIMITED TO 666 COPIES!!!!
Another essential grind metal classic available on vinyl for the first time in years. Exact reproduction of the original sleeve and on colored wax! Just like the Carcass vinyl reissue last list, if you don't already know who they are, you probably don't need this, but 'Scum' is definitely Napalm Death's finest moment. Short sharp bursts of ripping, pounding super political sort-of-lo-fi crusty metallic grind. A classic! And for those of you turntable-less fools out there, it is of course still available on cd!
New albums from old faves come and go, but when you say, there's a new Neurosis, we sit up and pay attention. Like contemporaries the Melvins, they've reached an iconic, utterly influential status at this point in their long career -- and yet still keep making rad, relevant albums that keep pushing their now archetypal sound further. Pioneers who keep on pioneering, getting better and better, even as hordes of other bands copy them and try to keep up. The word on the street was that Given To The Rising was a "return to the heavy" for Neurosis, not like they ever really left. But yes, this is HEAVY. We can't say (like we did about A Sun That Never Sets) that is is a "kinder, gentler" Neurosis. Not at all. The riffs will slay you, the vocals are fierce, yet the scope (musical, emotional) of this disc is impressively broad... The proggy, psychedelic, post-rock and (dare we say) gloom-pop elements that run like a dark thread through their discography are present on these ten tracks, mostly all of epic lengths (as usual). Harrowing power. Depressive beauty. Ritual rumble. Alienated lyrics. Soft-loud dynamics. Droning space-outs. All utterly "owned" by the Neurosis crew. This band just levels everything and everyone in their path!
This is one that will satisfy old school Neurosis fans and yet would be a perfect first-time Neurosis experience too. For instance -- although we can't imagine this is too likely! -- if there are any Jesu fans out there who haven't ever heard Neurosis, do yourself a favor and pick this up pronto!! Arguably their best album since 1999's classic Times Of Grace.
PS while supplies last, we've got a bonus dvd that comes with the cd... oh and also there WILL be a vinyl pressing, but it's not out yet.
An ultra brief blast of grim, depressive, doomy ambience, from this Swedish one man horde known as Nihilum. Also spreading his harsh hateful message of metallic doom and gloom in the groups Durthang and Hypothermia, Nachtzeit, the man behind Nihilum, here weaves lush, lonely synthscapes of minor key melody, rumbling drones, soaring faux strings, and mournful melancholia, all over drawn out pulses and epic sweeping expanses of slow shifting fuzz. A gloriously lo-fi dark ambience, cinematic and sad, weirdly dramatic and hauntingly pretty.
Not so much metal, or doom, or even heavy really, as lilting and lovely, dark, dreamy and depressive.
While Andrew Pekler has previously recorded albums for Scape and Staugbold don't be expecting any minimal glitch here. Cue is his homage to the great tradition of library music. When records were made with almost anonymous authorship filled with tracks perfect for different moods and moments that could be used to score films and television programs. What Pekler has done is to use library music as his springboard, each track is given a short descriptive summary ("ambiguous western atmosphere resolving into children's tune, swirling cymbals added") yet the sounds he makes come out sounding anything but clinical and calculating. Instead he gets to the heart of the sounds filling this record with so much mindfulness and rich warmth. Musically it reminds us a bit of our favorite era of Mouse on Mars (Iaora Tahiti, Instrumentals, etc) as well as the first few To Rococo Rot outings. But what also makes Cue sound so great is that you never really think of it as an electronic album. It is mood music filled with building and evolving tones, and moments of guitars, percussion and piano. There is a timeless quality to the sounds on Cue that we could see someone coming across fifty years from now and putting in a film just as easily as we could have believed this was a long lost record of late 60's/early 70's forward thinking experimentalism in the BBC Workshop tradition. It's dreamy without being too light, moody without being heavy handed and totally engaging throughout!
First release from Drag City sublabel�Yaala Yaala,�a new Sublime Frequencies style series of West African musics culled from field recordings, found sounds and tapes purchased at flea markets. And much like Sublime Frequencies, these mostly low fidelity recordings are allowed to remain mysterious, no liner notes, very little information about the artists, just a brief bit of text, mostly about the discovery of the music itself, and one can only assume, no system in place for providing the artists with royalties. A sticky situation for sure, one we can only hope the label will eventually address and make right. In the meantime though, these recordings are so fantastic. Raw and intense, gritty and gorgeous.�
Yoro Diallo is from Mali and is a well known singer and here is paired up with Pekos, who plays a guitar-like lute, an instrument whose sound is absolutely mindblowing, a fierce buzzing rhythmic riffing, crunchy and heavy, warm and resonant and so so powerful. Strummed and struck, picked and rubbed, weaving a totally hypnotic groove, on the first track it takes the form of a raw blues jam, the melody looped and repeated mantra like while Diallo, wails over the top, his voice deep and intense, as powerful and raw as the music beneath it. The two trade verses, Pekos offering up a never ending patter, almost scatting, while Diallo swoops in every few measures and destroys, his delivery a super intense almost toasting. The first track has been stuck in the cd player on repeat since we first got this in. All the intensity and emotion of Konono No.1 and the same sort of festive vibe, as well as the same song structure, a looped cyclical jam that could go on forever and ever and oh how we wish it would. The second track is like a slowed down back porch version of the first. The strings weaving a loping laid back backdrop, with simple percussion, and the same vocal interplay, Pekos more subdued, Diallo a gorgeous intense roar.�
Besides the first track, the other highlight is probably the track, a sprawling midtempo jam, way in the background, simple metallic rhythms and softly strummed guitars, while over the top, another guitar is pounded in and out of tune, warbling drunkenly, intertwined with the vocals, eventually dropping most of the melody and becoming another percussion instrument, emitting occasional squalls of tangled melody before returning to its motorik pulse, until eventually evolving into an almost James Brown like detuned funk jam, with the crowd watching going wild. So intense and emotional. One of our favorite 'new' recordings, we can hardly wait for the rest of the series...
In the overcrowded world of metallic post rock, or post metal, or whatever the heck you want to call it, there seem to be two forces constantly battling it out, Pelican and Isis. But it's hardly a battle, as both bands are friends, share a label, and share a sound too. And the interesting thing is they both seem to be developing in a similar fashion. Each band, in their own way, and at their own pace, seems to be phasing metal out of their sound. Not completely. But where Isis once sounded a LOT like Neurosis, they now sound much more like a post rock band with metal bits here and there. Expansive and epic and only heavy to balance their ultra melodic side. And while Pelican seemed to be on a serious metal bender there for a while, this new record, while indeed rife with metallic moments, finds them at their post rockiest, and we have to say it suits them.
From the opening track, with its loping minor key math rock intro, to it's downtuned metal chug middle, to a killer harmony guitar / double kick bridge, the band never go all out metal, even if it might sound like it on the surface. Sure, we're loving the occasional flurry of maniacal kick drum, and the occasional Fucking Champs like Carcass riffery, but it never completely transforms the sound into pure metal. Metal plated maybe, but regardless, it sounds amazing!
Pelican nowadays sound like the very heaviest band you loved in the nineties, come back to life, supercharged and metallized. We hear lots of Slint, Bastro, Polvo, Shellac, Don Caballero, June Of 44 and bands like that, in the riffs, the arrangements, the melodies, which is fine with us. In fact, a lot of City Of Echoes sounds like a heavier Explosions In The Sky, who obviously owe a great debt to the loud-quiet-loud math rockers of days gone by. Sure it's metal enough to hit the spot for that sensitive metalhead in need of a melodic instru-metal fix, and yeah it may be heavy, and it may be metallic, but c'mon, this is indie rock, a kick ass, heavy as fuck indie rock maybe, but still...
While they last, we have the limited Japanese import Daymare double disc version of City Of Echoes, much like the fancy version of Jesu's Conqueror we carry instead of the domestic Hydra Head version. Ultra deluxe packaging, gorgeous design, thick 6 panel digipak, spot varnish gloss on matte finish, Japanese obi, Japanese liner notes, but most importantly, a bonus dvd of the band performing live at the Knitting Factory in L.A., playing mostly new songs but a few Pelican classics like "March To The Sea". The dvd looks great, sounds great, and unlike some past performances we've seen, the band are on fire -- they've always sounded great, but they didn't always move that much, but here the band are super active on stage, jumping around, swaying, head banging, which makes it way more intense and fun to watch. And it's cool to see the new songs played live too...
This Pennsylvania punk band's debut Shallow was a surprise, sleeper hit 'round here, scuzzy and trashed and oh-so-catchy, the likes of which we hadn't heard since the '80s, it was that good. Sub Pop obviously thought the same, and picked up Pissed Jeans for a single and also their sophomore album effort, now upon us, Hope For Men (what is that title, taken from some spam email subject line?).
So, do they deliver? Yes... and no... and yes. Yes this is MORE damaged and distorted and deviant than the debut. No, it's not quite as catchy, not immediately. But the level of artful anguished ugliness that they achieve here takes some doing and when you're in the mood, this album is gonna be your best friend, your friend who's been there, crawling in the gutter, screaming his guts out, the only friend who can understand how wrecked you are, how fucked up your life is, how shit sucks and you both need another drink. When you're thinking, where the fuck's Black Flag? How come they're not around for me anymore? Pissed Jeans is there for you, man. This is no good-time rock and roll, it's filthy puking punk dirge that you'll want to play LOUD. Parts of this even remind us of the mighty Oxbow, who are a lot more bluesy and avant-garde than Pissed Jeans but also are pretty much THE yardstick by which seriously fucked angst-ridden cathartic rock should be measured (along with, perhaps, Brainbombs), so that's no small compliment I'm sure you'll agree. All their self-loathing and fear of sex and yuppie-hating and general misanthropy, though, is channelled into some seriously primal sonics that may or may not be theraputic but sure as hell rock in the noisiest sense of the term, with some almost--ambient but still abrasive interludes amongst the more brutal tunage (the semi-spoken vocals on the former being the least-successful, trying-too-hard part of this album for us, however, even though it's also what pushes the Oxbow angle). And, they still have a sense of (black) humor, how could they go on without it??
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.
First vinyl release from this one man sci-fi synth slinger. Two epic sides of blown out, FX drenched synthesizer spacescapes, drones, and rippling fields of alien bleep and bloop. All produced from a handful of homemade synth modules. The first side is wild and playful, total b-movie sound effects, tripped out and bizarre, atmospheric, buzzy and squelchy, like some long lost recording from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Lots of these sounds would be right at home on an episode of Dr. Who! The flip side is much less playful, more dark and moody, dreamy stretches of fuzzed out drones, very cinematic and Goblin-like at times, a constantly shifting soundscape of rumbling atmospheric murk, peppered with little bits of damaged synth noise. Awesome stuff.
Gorgeous psychedelic cover art, full color paste on black sleeve, with a full color insert.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!
Latest analog blast of abstract hypno skree from this French one man band and it's a beaut. Looped high end shimmer, distant industrial grind and creak and a creepy whispered mantra are smeared into a gorgeously woozy blur, eventually joined by some random woodpecker percussion. Strange but really quite beautiful and mesmerizing. The flipside is another mantra-like loop based drone, lots of tape hiss, and lo fi rumble, tape warble and stuttering fragments of hiss all drifting on a swirling sea of crumbling low end, and peppered with bits of crackle and crunch. Weird and wonderful.
Amazingly packaged, a green and yellow hand painted tape, in a full color sleeve, inside a full color insert and a folded up short story printed on super nice textured paper. LIMITED TO 68 COPIES!!!
Released for the first time on cd, this is Don Rickles' 1969 comedy album Speaks! as reissued by the Jewish Music Group under license from Warner Bros. Unavailable for years and years, it features the infamous comedian fielding queries, press-conference-style, on a broad array of disparate topics -- sports, TV, current affairs and Frank Sinatra! Even by today's standards, his sardonic, biting vitriol comes across as nothing short of shocking. He'd have folks shaking in their boots any time he took the podium at celebrity roasts, for sure. Indeed an incredible quick wit was the fount of his trademark acid tongued barbs, but his astute insights were also frequently overshadowed by the controversy of his slurs. He could be very VERY politically incorrect. Like for instance, on this record, borderline racist humor about his pal Sammy Davis Jr... or borderline bestiality jokes about Sinatra! (The "Rat Pack" sure takes some lumps here.) That said, social/political issues, merciless insults and self deprecation were delivered in equal doses. Howard Stern has nothing on him. Nor does your mean, drunken grandpa.
For those of us who weren't even born when this album was originally released, some of the many political pop culture references made by Rickles are gonna be puzzling to say the least. It's almost a surreal stream of consciousness thing full of now-so-dated-they're-cryptic allusions. But that actually makes this all the more fascinating, even when it's not funny, which it often isn't, except in a sorta painful way. And even the people and events the mentions that we are familiar with, it's pretty weird to listen to jokes about -- including Spiro Agnew, the Arab-Israeli War, Robert Goulet, Ho Chi Minh, and the Electric Prunes! A curious artifact for sure.
We've been going a little bit Robedoor crazy. We were sort of late to the party, but we're trying to make up for it, by dumping as much of their noisy divinity into our ears as humanly possible. This latest slab of glorious sound is a split with fellow noise maker Leslie Keffer. Hard to tell whose side is whose, but fuck it, it hardly matters, as both sides are amazing.�
One side (we're guessing the Keffer side) is a roiling mass of thick hissy clouds, whirring and rumbling, a seemingly unwavering blast of fuzzy white noise, that somehow manages to be super listenable, pretty even, for a brief moment in the middle, the noise fades out, leaving a damaged loop of what sounds like a little girl speaking in tongues, but the loops intensify and overlap and soon the voices are a jumbled mass and we're back to more of that beautiful noise.�
The flip side is all glistening guitars and chant like vocals, super distorted and washed out, layer upon layer upon layer, dense and thick and warm, like a roomful of DJ's all spinning the same Sunroof! record at slightly different speeds. Dizzying and so gorgeous.�
And�speaking of gorgeous, HOLY SHIT, the cover of this lp is SO thick with paint, we almost got high in the time it took us to get the record out and on the turntable. A thick glossy coat of black, and over that, a super detailed illustration done all in metallic gold. So totally amazing looking...
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES and already out of print, so act fast...
In our ongoing obsession with all things Robedoor, here's yet another awesome chunk of blissed out drone-noise, teamed up with their perfect sonic foils, AQ faves the Yellow Swans. Both bands dial down the brutality and intensity, offering up two gorgeous tracks of shimmering, buzzing ambience, each with their own vibe, and one still a bit brutal and intense.�
Robedoor are up first, and this is just about the loveliest thing we've heard from these guys. All gliding glimmer, warm effulgent swells of sound, distant moaning cellos that just sort of melt all over the top of the guitar, gorgeous and tranquil, a blissy drift through billowing clouds of soft focus blur, distorted and buzzy, but smeared into one slow burning easy on the ears whir.�
Yellow Swans counter with their own version of 'tranquil' and as you might imagine it's a bit different than RD's. Noisier and heavier, more fuzzed out and harsh, but no less lovely. A whirling wash of thick gritty grime, muted grinding rhythms, industrial whir, buzzing and rumbling. The whole thing thick and crumbling and corrosive, but still so pretty!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one hand numbered.�
The welcome return of New Zealand minimal drone guitar wrangler Andrew Moon, the man who is RST. We recently managed to get a handful of his amazing Corpus Hermeticum release Warm Planes (sorry, all gone now) direct from the man himself, after years of being out of print, and it reminded us how much we loved and missed his dark abstract guitarscapes.
And what do you know, hot on the heels of that reminder, BAM. A new record. And not just a new record, a new TRIPLE cd-r, which if anything, is essential for the sorts of sounds Moon creates, his expansive worlds of glacial guitar need all the space they can get, the beauty lies in the sounds of the journey, the sound of the guitar unfurling its sonic mysteries. We would have been just as happy with 6 discs, or 12, but we'll make do with three.
Other Machines is three discs, three tracks, each 45 minutes plus, titled "Worlds", "Ages" and "Earth", titles that certainly sound epic and timeless, but which perfectly suit the sounds within. Each track is one looooooong piece. Ultra minimal. A single guitar, allowed to slowly uncoil, to sprawl like some planet swallowing black cloud, the guitar loosing a single note, or maybe a single chord, either way, that sound drifts from the speaker like it could go on forever. And it feels like it does. Or it should. But this is no static drone, no, the guitar is always changing, pulsing and throbbing, shifting and shimmering, floating from downtuned thrum to metallic hum to drifting high end whir and back again. Always muted and minimal, not heavy so much as intense and dense. A strangely cyclic and mesmerizing expanse of never ending guitar buzz.
We could listen to this stuff nonstop (and some of us do!). You like SUNNO))), Fear Falls Burning, Phill Niblock, Vulture Club, you definitely need to hear RST. Epic, intense, super minimal, strangely melodic, and so totally gorgeous....
The legend beneath the liner notes inside this disc from Starving Weirdos offshoot RV Paintings reads "Jam Nature!!!" Not sure whether it's a command or a description of their process, but just like the music they make, those words could just as easily come from the twisted musical minds of the Jewelled Antler Collective. Which is not all that surprising really. When we first heard the Starving Weirdos, what struck us was their deft blend of abstract found sounds, and improvised noisemaking. Anyone can sit on the floor with a bunch of instruments and fuck around, but only a handful can make magic.
This trio does just that on Trinity Rivers, utilizing the usual array of sound making devices, but incorporating some less likely devices as well, including most notable glasses and "fog-like layers". And it's those two elements that go the farthest in defining the unique sound of Trinity Rivers. The singing sounds of rubbed glass, make everything glisten and sparkle, a breathtakingly delicate shimmer that spreads out over the proceedings like the morning sun peaking over the tops of the trees. Beneath it, plenty of drones and whirs float and drift, as well as dense little flurries of rhythmic tangle. But no matter where the 'Paintings take their sound, it always seems to return to the tranquil drift and shimmer of the glass. The second track begins with a bang, a huge dense cloud of insect like buzz and intertwined with dizzying loops and hiccuping pulses, a swirling sonic chaos with a soft melodic center, barely audible through the buzz and fuzz, but by the end it's drifted back to the glassy glimmer of the first track.
The final track also starts out intense, with strange rhythmic guitar and deep droning swells, before fading into a bleary eyed foggy ambience, the sounds of gulls and lapping waves, hovering beneath wispy clouds of chimes and peals of high end skree, before gradually devolving into a slow fading stretch of hypnotic hand drums,
Released on Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's (of Tarentel) Root Strata label, packaged in a gorgeous black and silver metallic cardstock sleeve with a printed insert.
Saint Vitus! In the doom metal pantheon, this '80s SoCal band is waaay up there, in the select group of second-gen Sabbath disciples that also includes Pentagram, Trouble, Witchfinder General, and Candlemass. Originally recording for SST, they were the throwback doom punk hippies of the hardcore scene. Hence such tunes as "Born Too Late". All of this, you should already know, and if not, there's little point in reading further about this release. 'Cause basically this item is something for true Vitus fans, those among you who know (and care) what we're talking about when we say that Andee and Allan here have a ongoing dispute about who was the best Vitus vocalist, Scott Reagers or his replacement, Scott "Wino" Weinrich. Extra points if you chime in, "what about Christian Lindersson?" If you yourself have formed an opinion on that subject (and particularly if you're a Wino fancier) then there's a good chance you'll want this DVD document of the legendary St. Vitus reunited (Dave Chandler, Armando Acosta, and Mark Adams, with Wino at the mic), live for one show only at the Double Door in Chicago, 2003. Billed as "the heaviest show ever" and well it's freaking Saint Vitus, they can say that if they want!
Ok, what else do you need to know? It's limited and numbered, it's an official release, it's a real DVD not DVD-R, it's a pro production (done by the Doomednation folks) shot on four cameras (which allow for some crazy close-ups and a diversity of "film stock"). The sound is decent, though it's also almost -too much- like you're actually at the show 'cause of all the crowd chatter you can hear. And here's the set list: "Clear Windowpane", "Dying Inside", "White Magic/Black Magic", "Living Backwards", "I Bleed Black", "Zombie Hunger", "White Stallions", "Born Too Late", "Mystic Lady", and "Saint Vitus"!
Right from the get-go it's obvious how Dave Chandler's frazzled, fuzzed wah-wah soloing makes Vitus sound so unique. Yeah they're hugely influenced by Black Sabbath. Wino gets as Ozzy as he can be. But there's something even more burnt out and deviant and, well, punk about the Vitus approach... and Dave Chandler's psychotic, psychedelic guitar playing (and personality) is a big part of that. Hell we're AMAZED that the dude still looks exactly the same -- imagine having that fabulous furry freak brothers frizzy long hair for all those years!! Right on. ----* ----* 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! ALOG "Amateur" (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98 AMON DUUL II "Wolf City" (SPV) cd 16.98 ARCTIC MONKEYS "Favorite Worst Nightmare" (Domino) cd 14.98 ART FLEURY "I Luoghi Del Potere" (Die-Schachtel) cd 27.00 ASHBY, DOROTHY "Afro-Harping" (Cadet) cd 12.98 ASSEMBLE HEAD IN SUNBURST SOUND "Ekranoplan" (Tee Pee) cd/lp 13.98/14.98 AURA NOIR "Deep Dreams Of Hell" (Karmageddon Media) cd 21.00 AZRAEL "Act III: Self & Act IV: Goat" (Moribund) 2cd 14.98 BACHI DA PIETRA "Non Io" (Die Schachtel) cd 19.98 BAD PLUS, THE "Prog" (Heads Up) cd 17.98 BALBOA / ROSETTA "Project Mercury" (Level Plane) cd 13.98 BANN "Antiochia" (Grief Foundation) cd ep 8.98 BARK! "Contraption" (PSI) cd 21.00 BERGRAVEN "Dodsvisioner" (Hydra Head) cd 14.98 BIRDS OF AVALON "Bazaar Bazaar" (Volcom) cd 14.98 BLOOD ISLAND RIDERS "s/t" (Invada) cd 14.98 BLOODY PANDA "Pheromone" (Level-Plane) cd 13.98 BURNING STAR CORE "Operator Dead... Post Abandoned" (No Quarter) cd 12.98 CAACRINOLAS "Vargtimmen" (self-released) cd-r 11.98 CAGE, JOHN "Atlas Eclipticalis With Winter Music" (Mode) 3cd 51.00 CAINA "Mourner" (Profound Lore) cd 12.98 CARAVAN "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over With You" (Eclectic Discs) cd 17.98 CARAVAN "In The Land Of Grey And Pink" (Eclectic Discs) cd 17.98 CASSERLEY, LAWRENCE & SIMON DESORGHER "Music From Colourdome" (PSI) cd 21.00 CEPHALIC CARNAGE "Xenosapien" (Relapse) cd 14.98 CEX "Sketchi" (Temporary Residence) cd 14.98 CUB "Betti-cola" (Mint) cd 15.98 CUB "Come Out Come Out" (Mint) cd 15.98 DAMNED, THE "Damned Damned Damned: 30th Anniversary Expanded Edition" (Castle Music) 3cd 24.00 DARKSPACE "II" (Avantgarde) cd 14.98 DEMBELE, DACUDA "s/t" (Yaala Yaala) cd 14.98 DISSECTING TABLE "Awake In Hell" (UPD Org.) cd 14.98 DODHEIMSGARD "Supervillain Outcast" (Moonfog) cd 13.98 DR. DELAY "Rajaz Meter" (Funk Weapons) cd-r 15.98 ELECTRIC PRUNES "Release Of An Oath" (Collector's Choice) cd 13.98 EMBRYO "Steig Aus" (Revisited) cd 17.98 EXCEPTER "Streams 01" (Fusetron) cd 15.98 EXIAS-J "Live Document 2003-2005" (P.S.F.) dvd 27.00 EXPO '70 "Animism" (Kill Shamen) cd 12.98 EXPO '70 "Audio Archive 001 - Music From Inaudible Depths" (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98 FEAR OF ETERNITY "Funeral Mass" (Moribund) cd 14.98 FELDMAN, MORTON "The Viola In My Life" (New World) cd 16.98 FRIAR TUCK "And His Psychedelic Guitar" (Fallout) cd 16.98 GROWING "Vision Swim" (Troubleman Unlimited) cd/lp 13.98/14.98 GUSTAFSSON, MATS & YOSHIMI "Words On The Floor" (Smalltown Supersound) cd 16.98 HAIR POLICE "Blind Kingdom" (Ultra Eczema) lp 29.00 HARRIS, BETTY "The Lost Soul Queen" (Aim) cd 16.98 HAVOK UNIT / ANDOCEANS / THE SIN:DECAY (V/A) "Synaethesia - The Requiem Reveries" (Vendlus) cd 9.98 HAYWARD, RICK "s/t" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98 HORNA "Aania Yossa" (Moribund) cd 14.98 HORNA / MUSTA SURMA "Vihan Vuodet" (Moribund) cd 14.98 HORSEBACK "Impale Golden Horn" (Burly Time) cd 13.98 HOWARD, NOAH "The Black Ark" (Bo'Weavil) cd 19.98 IRA DE DIOS, LA "Archaeopterix" (Ogro) cd 14.98 IRA DE DIOS, LA "Hacia El Sol Rojo" (Ogro) cd 14.98 ITO, TEIJI "Tenno" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 JANDEK "Manhattan Tuesday" (Corwood Industries) 2cd 12.98 KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF "Jinx" (Staubgold) cd/lp 15.98/15.98 KEFFER, LESLIE "Feels Like Frenching" (Ecstatic Peace) lp 13.98 LA OTRACINA "Tonal Ellipse Of The One" (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98 LADY SAW "Walk Out" (VP) cd 15.98 LEFT SENSORY BYPASS "Temporal Exclusion" (Paradigms) cd 12.98 LICHENS "Omns" (Kranky) cd + dvd 16.98 LIFE ON EARTH "Look!! There Is Life On Earth!" (Subliminal Sounds) cd 16.98 LIK "Lekamen Illusionen Kallet" (Agonia) cd 15.98 LINDSTROM & PRINS THOMAS "Reinterpretations" (Eskimo Recordings) cd 16.98 LOTUS EATERS "Wurmwulv" (Troubleman Unlimited) cd 14.98 LOUDEST WHISPER "The Children Of Lir" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 M'LUMBO "Sacrifices To The Neon Gods" (Mulatta Records) cd 16.98 MACHINEFABRIEK "Huis" (self-released) 3" cd-r 7.98 MAGICAL POWER MAKO "s/t" (Hagakure) cd 33.00 MAGICAL POWER MAKO "Super Record" (Hagakure) cd 33.00 MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "L'Autre Cap" (K) cd/lp 14.98/13.98 MANES "How The World Came To An End" (Candlelight) cd 12.98 MANIERISME "s/t" (Nekrokult Nihilism) cd 13.98 MANSBESTFRIEND (SOLE) "Poly.Sci.187" (Anticon) cd 14.98 MANSON, CHARLES "The Summer Of Hate - The '67 Sessions" (Arte Lupo) cd 15.98 MARGINAL CONSORT "s/t" (Improvised Music From Japan) 4cd 79.00 MARHAUG / ASHEIM "Grand Mutation" (Touch) cd 15.98 MARILYN MANSON "Eat Me, Drink Me" (Interscope) cd 14.98 MAYHEM "Ordo Ad Chao" (Seasons Of Mist) cd 15.98 MEKURYA, GETATCHEW & THE EX "Moa Anbessa" (Terp) cd 18.98 MERZBOW "Bloody Sea" (Vivo) cd 14.98 METAL ROUGE "Ephemeroptera 01" (Seymour Records) cd 8.98 MIKAMI, KAN "Barking Practice" (PSF) cd 22.00 MIKAMI, KAN "Live Kolian 2006" (Mikami Komuten) cd 22.00 MINSK "The Ritual Fires Of Abandonment" (Relapse) cd 12.98 MODESELEKTOR "Boogybytes Vol.3" (Bpitch) cd 15.98 MOONSORROW "V : Havitetty" (Unruly Sounds) cd 12.98 MRWEBI, GWIGWI "Mbaqanga Songs" (Honest Jon's) cd 17.98 MYTHICAL BEAST / POCAHAUNTED "Split" (Not Not Fun) lp 13.98 N.I.L. "s/t" (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98 NAMELOSERS "Fabulous Sounds From Southern Sweden" (Got To Hurry) cd 17.98 NARROWS, THE "Benjamin" (Wantage USA) cd 12.98 NATIONAL, THE "Boxer" (Beggars Banquet) cd 13.98 NAUGHTIEST GIRL WAS A MONITOR, THE "S/T" (Vinyl On Demand) 26.00 NEW AMSTERDAMS, THE "Killed Or Cured" (Curb Appeal) 2cd 14.98 NOBLE, STEVE / JOHN EDWARDS / ALAN WILKINSON "Obliquity" (Bo'Weavil) cd/lp 19.98/25.00 NORTH SEA, THE "Exquisite Idols" (Type) cd 15.98 NOSTALGIA 77 "Everything Under The Sun" (Ubiquity) cd 16.98 O BANDO "s/t" (Discos Mariposa) cd 17.98 O TERCO "s/t" (Discos Mariposa) cd 17.98 OBSCURUS ADVOCAM "Verbia Daemonicus" (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98 ONO, YOKO "Open Your Box" (Astralwerks) cd 14.98 OS MUNDI "43 Minuten" (Revisited) cd 17.98 OTOMO, YOSHIHIDE "Multiple Otomo" (Asphodel) dvd+cd 16.98 PALE DIVINE "Cemetary Earth" (I Hate) cd 16.98 PARRY / SOEGAARD "Off The Map" (Hwyl Nofio) cd 14.98 PETRONELLA, ANGELO "Sintesi Da Un Diario" (Die Schachtel) cd 18.98 PIERSON, DAX AND ROBERT HORTON "Pablo Feldman Sun Riley" (AA / Nosordo) cd 14.98 PILIA, STEFANO "The Suncrows Fall and Tree" (Sedimental) cd 14.98 PINEBENDER "Working Nine To Wolf" (Lovitt) cd 12.98 PINK REASON "Cleaning The Mirror" (Siltbreeze) cd 13.98 PLAIN RIDE "Strange Trial" (Ektro) cd 14.98 PLANTS "Photosynthesis" (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 14.98 POWERHOUSE SOUND "Oslo/Chicago: Breaks" (Atavistic) cd 17.98 PRAXIS "Tennessee 2004" (ROIR) cd 14.98 PRIESTBIRD "In Your Time" (Kemado) cd 13.98 PROFUNDI "The Omega Rising" (Profound Lore) cd 15.98 QUI "Baby Kisses" (Heart Of A Champion) cd 12.98 RA "Ev.Panic Redone" (Planet Mu) cd 10.98 RAAIJMAKERS, DICK "Complete Tape Music Of Dick Raaijmakers" (Basta) 3cd 33.00 RACCOO-OO-OON "Behold Secret Kingdom" (Release The Bats) cd 12.98 RAMESES III "Honey Rose" (Important) cd 9.98 REAGANS MEMORY "s/t" (S/R) cassette 4.98 RODEN, JEFFREY "Seeds Of Happiness" (New Albion) cd 16.98 ROTH, DAVID LEE "Sonrisa Salvaje" (Friday Music) cd 15.98 ROWE, KEITH "The Room" (Erstwhile Records) cd 14.98 RUPTURE, DJ/ & FILASTINE "Shotgun Wedding Volume 6" (Violent Turd) cd 10.98 SAVATH & SAVALAS "Golden Pollen" (Anti) cd 14.98 SCHMICKLER, MARCUS "Demos" (A-Musik) cd 17.98 SCHULZE, KLAUS "Blackdance" (Revisited) cd 16.98 SECOND HAND "Reality" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98 SENKING "List" (Raster-Norton) cd 17.98 SHADOW, DJ "Best Of Mo Wax 12's: The DJ Shadow Collection" (Mo Wax) cd 17.98 SHINING PATH, THE "s/t" (Holy Mountain) LP + CD 15.98 SHIRE, DAVID "The Hindenberg (OST)" (Intrada) cd 30.00 SHIRE, DAVID "Zodiac (OST)" (Varese Sarabande) cd 16.98 SIR LORD BALTIMORE "Kingdom Come" (Tapestry) lp 29.00 SKATERS "Dispersed Royal Ornaments" (Wabana) lp 24.00 SKULL DEFECTS, THE "The Sound Of Defekt Skulls" (Utech) cd 14.98 SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM "In Glorious Times" (The End) cd 14.98 SNAKEPIT "Issue No. 14" magazine 4.50 SNAKEPIT "Issue No. 15" magazine + 7" 9.98 SPIRITUALAIRES, THE OF HURSTSBORO, ALABAMA "Singing Songs Of Praise" (CaseQuarter) cd 14.98 SPOOKY, DJ "System Error. Al-Yamamah Mix" (Horus) cd 17.98 STARCHASER NETWORK "s/t" (Tarot Productions) cd 14.98 STORM BUGS "Supplementary Benefit" (Vinyl On Demand) lp 26.00 SUN RA "Strange Strings" (El Saturn) cd 15.98 SUN RA "The Creator Of The Universe" (Transparancy) 2cd 16.98 SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN "No Magic MAn" (Arthur) cd 13.98 SWORD + SANDALS "Live At Arc" (Freak Out) cd-r 10.98 TAAKE "Nekro" (Karisma) cd ep 13.98 TARWATER "Spider Smile" (Morr Music) cd 16.98 THEE MORE SHALLOWS "Book Of Bad Breaks" (Anticon) cd 14.98 THRONE OF KATARSIS "An Eternal Dark Horizon" (Candlelight) cd 13.98 THUNDERBOLT "Apocalyptic Doom" (Agonia) cd 15.98 TRANSMISSION 0 "Memory Of A Dream" (Candlelight) cd 13.98 TREES COMMUNITY, THE "The Christ Tree (Regular Edition)" (Hand/Eye) cd 14.98 TRELLDOM "Til Et Annet" (Karmageddon Media) cd 21.00 USAISAMONSTER "Geronimo" (Lovepump United) 7" 9.98 V/A "Box Of Dub" (Soul Jazz) cd/3LP 21.00/28.00 V/A "Disco Deutschland Disco" (Marina) cd 16.98 V/A "Ed Rec Vol. 2" (Ed Banger) cd 14.98 V/A "Good God!: Heavy Funk Covers Of James Brown From All Over The World 1968-1974" (Guerrilla Reissues) cd/lp 13.98/16.98 V/A "I Walk The Lonely Night" (Psychic Circle) cd 16.98 V/A "Lovin' Fire: 20 Obscure Gems From The UK And Europe" (Psychic Circle) cd 16.98 V/A "Paper Rad Uniform" (Vicious Pop) 7" 8.98 V/A "Reactions To Raaijmakers" (Basta) cd 21.00 V/A "Searchin' For Shakes" (Amigo) cd 17.98 V/A "Sepulchral Productions Presents Waging The War" (Sepulchral Productions) cd 10.98 V/A "Songs The Bongos Taughts Us: Pre-History Of The Bongos" (Lightning Tree) cd 15.98 V/A "Tectonic Plates" (Tectonic) 2cd 22.00 V/A "Thank You For Being You" (Electric Honey) cd 14.98 V/A "White Bicycles" (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98 VAN ZANDT, TOWNES "Delta Momma Blues" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98 VAN ZANDT, TOWNES "Flying Shoes" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98 VAN ZANDT, TOWNES "Our Mother The Mountain" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98 VAN ZANDT, TOWNES "Townes Van Zandt" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98 VENETIAN SNARES "Pink + Green" (Sublight) cd 15.98 VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA "Wisdom Thunderbolt" (VHF) cd 13.98 VIEUX FARKA TOURE "s/t" (World Village) cd 16.98 VIRUS SYNDICATE "Present: Contagious Vol. 1" (Tyke) cd 17.98 VITAL REMAINS "Icons Of Evil" (Century Media) cd 12.98 WAREIKA HILL SOUNDS "s/t" (Honest Jons) cd/lp 18.98/18.98 WHITEHORSE "s/t" (20 Buck Spin) 2cd 14.98 WINDMILLS BY THE OCEAN "s/t" (Robotic Empire) cd 13.98 WIZAR'D, THE "Smouldering Sinners" (Rusty Axe) 7" 5.98 XYNFONICA "A Feast For Famished Ravens" (Hekaloth / Cyclops) cd 15.98 YAALAII, BOUGOUNI "s/t" (Yaala Yaala) cd 14.98 YEAR OF NO LIGHT "Nord" (Crucial Blast) cd 15.98 YOUNGS, RICHARD & ALEX NEILSON "Electric Lotus LP & Lotus Editions CD" (VHF) lp+cd 15.98 ZORN, JOHN "Six Litanies For Heliogabalus" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 ZWEINSTEIN "Trip / Flip Out / Meditation" (Captain Trip) 3cd 88.00 ZWEIZZ "The Yawn Of The New Age" (Vendlus) cd 15.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
Hilarious. Bizarre. Amazing. As always. Can you tell we're fans?
The humor of Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster is one of the reasons that New Jersey's WFMU is one of the best radio stations anywhere. Every time a new cd from these two comes out (there's been four previous releases) we drop everything to put it on in the store and listen and laugh our asses off. And every time, customers previously unfamiliar with Scharping & Wurster start laughing too, ask what the heck we're playing, and instantly buy copies. Basically, the S&W formula is that easily-bemused regular-guy DJ Tom Scharpling is taking calls on this show, when some weirdo and/or jerk (not always obvious as such at first) calls in to talk and the two of them get into some ridiculous verbal battle. Said caller always being played by Jon Wurster. It's a theatre of the absurd, with Scharpling & Wurster spinning some really strange and incredibly funny scenarios which they somehow make almost believable -- in part 'cause they have an uncanny ability not to crack each other up, dunno how they do it, especially since a lot of these calls/tracks go on for upwards of 20 minutes!
Originally we got into S&W 'cause of the indie-rock connection, they love to make fun of rock snobbery (like Wurster's character Ronald Thomas Clontle on the classic Rock, Rot, & Rule). But they don't limit themselves to music-related humor at all -- though the bonus third disc here is devoted entirely to the efforts of the would-be rock star guy originally introduced on New Hope For The Ape-Eared to have his band Mother 13 play on Mount Everest. Meanwhile, disc one features "Jock Squad" (think Geek Squad but different), "The Auteur" (a self-important slasher film director), and "Philly Boy Roy" (a lampooning of such supposed Philadelphia pastimes as the "running of the cheesesteaks" and "Laser Allin"). Disc two has "Andy From Lake Newbridge" (who turns out to live in, not on the lake, and in fact is a carp), "Tornado Todd" (a guy whose life-changing escape from death doesn't stop him from being a total sleazeball), and "Postal Slap Fight" (wherein Tom gets threatened by a guy whose uncle is the Postmaster General). You've got to hear these to understand why they're hilarious, but trust us, they are. Recommended to anyone with a funny bone.
Okay folks, bear with us for these first few sentences, but we really need to get it out of our system. This album just happened to be the straw that broke this camel's back...
We really gotta wonder if the world's finally run out of good band names -- with monikers like Shapes And Sizes and Parts And Labor? What's next? Gluestick And The Mighty Tapegun? No wait, is that a good one?! And what's with all the (mostly Canadian) young pop bands lately sounding like they're yodellers-in-training up on the Swiss Alps? Don't know about you, but our fill of yelping puppy vocals is getting pretty close to overload.
Whoa, first impressions can be pretty powerful, can't they? What a way to get off to a less than good start, huh? Gave 'em what amounts to a verbal shiner! FORTUNATELY, once the second song kicked in our second impression took a remarkable turn for the better! Sooo... some may quickly call this band quirky, but that adjective might sell them short. This is an adventure playground of loopy, dizzying eccentric sugary pop twists... that deserves a better moniker than Shapes And Sizes! Ahh, but we digress. The female vocal melodies soar and swoop like a bird in flight -- reminiscent of fellow Canadian veteran artist Jane Siberry's wistful, imaginative vision. The boy sung eighth song slips into the well-schooled pop path of Pinback, Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, and Destroyer. Done very well all right, but personally we lean more in favour of the female sung tunes though, as they're much more distinct and sparklingly engaging. So after a downright awkward introduction, Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner ended up injury-free smooth sailing the rest of the way.
Any record that is an homage to Eric Dolphy and his (possibly imagined) interaction and fascination with birds is pretty much guaranteed to hit the spot.
But when said record is wrapped in some of the most striking cd artwork we've seen in ages, and is in fact a strange sort of jazz drone collage constructed from samples of Dolphy records, field recordings and some added percussion, well, it's almost like they came to us and asked us what sort of record we wanted to hear, and we told them "Let's see, drones for sure, some field recordings, and heck, why not include some Dolphy..."
The cover art is amazing. Like the illustrations for some childrens' book. A big eyed, horned, bat-bird-witch flying over a forest of angular trees, sitting in the clouds over a sea filled with ships manned by black headed rabbits with water pouring from their eyes, and spiriting away with a dry eyed black headed rabbit in his claws, while below, another rabbit fills a chalice with one eye, and the sea with the other. The artwork alone sets the bar pretty high. Dark and dreamy, playful but slightly ominous...
Thankfully, the music is also all of those things. And then some. The brief opening track is a tangle of bass clarinet, smeared into a deep expanse of low end shimmer, while above, melodies and melodic fragments drift and splinter. Very evocative of a cloudy day, wet streets and soft sheets of rain.
The second track introduces a simple motorik rhythm, that shuffles and skitters beneath a constant shifting drone woven from looped horns. Super hypnotic and dreamy. Almost like a stripped down, drone-y jazzy Pharaoh Overlord. As the drums peter out, the horns begin to bounce and dance, chirp and flutter, and suddenly the sky is clear and full of birds, or is it just Dolphy playing the sounds of birds?
The final track is an epic, clocking in at almost 20 minutes, Dolphy's horns surface here and there, but most of the track has them stretched and smoothed out into ultra minimal low end drifts, warm swells of muted melody, a totally mesmerizing abstract drift.
This is one of those records, that had we not known the story behind it, we probably wouldn't have necessarily made the Dolphy connection, or the bird connection for that matter, and actually the jazz element is subtle and quite minimal, but as a chunk of dreamy dark drone drift, it's really quite fantastic. And as far as we're concerned there can never be too much tribute paid to the late great Eric Dolphy!
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It's hard not to love Shellac. They are definitely�one of the best sounding bands in the world. And they still manage to be as weird as all get out. Sonically, their recordings are so loud and live sounding. The players are unbelievably tight and efficient. The drums are like a machine, way up in the mix, driving the songs, so precise and perfect, but somehow still impossibly groovy. The arrangements are simple, but manage to be intense and convoluted and confusing at the same time. Albini is the absolute master of the jagged angular riff. Stripped down minimal math rock, no one does it better.�
So what's a band to do, instead of making another perfect sounding record? Well, howsabout making a not-so-perfect sounding record? Or more specifically making a -mostly- perfect sounding record, but making it so weird and fucked up that it's bound to drive some folks nuts? Which is exactly what they've done.�
The long in the works (6 or 7 years it seems like)�Excellent Italian Greyhound definitely sounds like a Shellac record, and in that, we already love it. And it does sound perfect. Most of the songs are relentless and intense, the guitar a precisely tuned rrrrroooooar, veering from sharp shards to warm crunch, in fact, Steve Albini's guitar tone sounds warmer than ever,�the bass a throbbing anchor, and the drums, holy shit, Todd Trainer is a mathrock drum cyborg alien master. And the songs! "Steady As She Goes" (we were secretly hoping it was a Raconteurs cover) is a post rock math rock post punk masterpiece. Tightly wound with a killer half time breakdown, and some relentlessly catchy riffing. The next track too, "Be Prepared", is about as good as stuff like this gets. A weird hook, a seasick rhythm, and amazing vocals.�And that voice, the same tortured whine, which in the past was another minimal element in Shellac's minimalist sound, is now taking center stage, often wailing all by its lonesome.
And�while we're on the subject of vocals, that's one way in which Albini and Co. seemingly decided to fuck with us.�Albini's lyrics in Shellac were always a bit, um... mysterious, but here they're downright bizarre, and almost goofy. The opening track "The End Of Radio" has some slightly cheesy bits, some radio style sloganeering, sure there is a point, but it still sounds a little out of place. But leave it to Shellac to take those lyrics and couple them with the weirdest song on the record, musically, with Trainer and Albini seemingly playing two different songs, maybe not even listening to each other, but clicking every few measures, making it obvious that it was meant to be exactly that way. But the song that will probably be the most discussed (in this review as well) is the nine minute long "Genuine Lulabelle", most of which sees Albini crooning romantically a capella. Singing about partying and cum and other weirdness. But as if that wasn't strange enough, other voices enter the fray, the Moviefone guy (?), even Strongbad (?!?!), from Homestarrunner.com... At first we were convinced that Albini had lost it, but the more we hear it, the more it seems just weird enough that it manages to transform the song from annoying and goofy to damaged and demented. And there ain't nothing wrong with damaged and demented.�
The rest of the record is rife with little bits of weirdness, the false starts on "Be Prepared", the jangly surf rock TV theme intro to "Spoke", as well as the usual deconstructed melodies, and abstract rhythmic workouts, but it all fits, it just takes standing back and seeing the big picture, no matter how convoluted and confusing and un-right it seems on the surface. Trust them. They're Shellac.�
A customer came in the other day and was looking for something new that was "spazzy and punky and weird" while we thought it might be easy to rattle off a bunch of suggestions to them we realized that we have been lacking any really good punk spirited albums as of late. This debut by the L.A. group Silver Daggers fills that void perfectly! Combining the eccentric nature of the early SST roster (Saccharine Trust, The Minutemen) the fierce intensity of Euro art-punk like Dog Faced Hermans and The Ex as well as the all out spazz attack of the 90's San Diego post punk scene (Swing Kids, Antioch Arrow, Clikitat Ikatowi) Silver Daggers incorporate distorted sax blasted throughout their short and sweaty anthems that hit a no-wave sweet spot of strange & spastic energy channeled in all the right ways. Finally some new punk sounds we can totally get behind!
Latest chunk of murky throb from the Skaters, a gorgeous expanse of alien ragas and primitive tribalism, all wrapped in that distinctly lo-fi Skaters swirl of sound. The band recently relocated to Berlin, thus these tapes, already sort of expensive, had to be shipped from Germany and ended up being even more expensive, but we only got a handful, and will not be able to get more, and to be honest, as expensive as it is, it might be the best thing we've heard from these guys.�
Strangely propulsive, Dripping Avenues is�some sort of�muted krautrocky jam, with simple tribal rhythms,�chanted throat singing-like vocals, and strange streaks of high end sound smeared into the backdrop of constantly shifting shimmers. Eventually a haunting Eastern tinged raga surface from within the murk, and adds a strange drone quality to the proceedings. But it's the production that really makes the Skaters' sound so unique. It's like listening to everything underwater. Warbly and thick and syrupy, as if the air was some sort of liquid, and the sound waves were struggling to make it through. Tape speed variation, hiss and whir, all whipped into a mantra like blur. Imagine the No Neck Blues Band playing on the bottom of the sea, while you float on the surface, your ears just slightly submerged, the strange ramshackle grooves slowly drifting upwards, completely warped and warbled by the time they reach your ears.�
The overall vibe is some sort of alien ur-drone raga ritual, a murky mesmer, endlessly repeating, slowly and subtly shifting, a divine dreamlike drift dipped in Skaters grit and grime and allowed to ooze into the tape recorder and out of your speakers...
Spent ages trying to track these down and finally managed to get some from the man himself. The latest from the current incarnation of the mighty Skullflower. Released on Marcia Bassett's Heavy Blossom label (Bassett is Bower's partner in Hototogisu), Abyssic Lowland Hiss finds Skullflower mainman Matthew Bower joined by Lee Stokoe from Culver for a seriously pulverizing double axe attack. Recorded live in Holland, this is just about the noisiest SF we've heard in ages. None of that space rock or krautrock or drone-y high end bliss Bower has been known to dabble in, this is full on white hot guitar meltdown brutality. One guitar is a grinding hiss drenched low end rumble, while the other guitar squeals and peals and roars and shrieks and often melts down into a throbbing thrum, joining the other guitar for some speaker shredding blasts of blown out buzz and druggy psychedelic chaos. No dynamics, no riffs even, just two guitars spewing thick jets of ultra distorted, FX drenched fury. As with all things Bower, there is a melodic component, a sort of shimmer that permeates even his noisiest sounds, although here, that shimmer is nearly swallowed whole by the ravenous black beast that is Abyssic Lowland Hiss.
We're huge fans of Australian guitarist Chris Smith, but until now had only ever been able to get a hold of the split 12" he shared with the Ivytree. There have been plenty of other releases, but the only proper stateside release has been out of print for ages. So finally, we managed to get a bunch of these, Smith and fellow countryman Justin Fuller's first full length collaboration, a full 7 years in the making, and it's quite nice.�
Hard to discern exactly what the instrumentation is, there are most certainly guitars, and according to the liner notes there is also piano and accordion, but with records like this, it's not what you're playing, it's how you play them and what you do with the sounds once you've made them. These two wrangle the various sounds into long stretches of slow shifting ambience. Some tracks are delicate and dark, barely there shimmers of crumbling low end and distant glimmering high end, while others are massive walls of guitar, churning chaotically, but smoothed into warm thick whorls. The heavier tracks definitely remind us of�Sunroof! or Vibracathedral Orchestra or even a less mangled Wolf Eyes or a way prettier SUNNO))). The prettier tracks have a bit of Tim Hecker going on, all blissy and fuzzy and beautifully blurred. The whole record is quite dreamy in fact, whether buzzing malevolently, or drifting languorously, a gorgeous chunk of blissed out guitardrone. The usual suspects will definitely need this...
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, Japanese liner notes, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
Black one includes La Mort Noir dans Esch/Alzette, a super limited (1000 copies) tour only cd, gone in a flash, within the first few dates of the tour, so even folks who made it out probably never even saw it. We never managed to get ANY copies at all, and it's been a super expensive eBay item ever since. The thing about La Mort Noir dans Esch/Alzette, is it might be even better than Black One proper! Recorded live in Luxembourg, the core duo of O'Malley and Anderson is augmented by Malefic of Xasthur on vocals, Dylan Carlson from Earth, the guy from Beaver on synths and Steve Moore on trombone (who also plays horns for Earth), and the set is monstrous, a dark and oppressive black dronescape, guitars are thick and glacial, the horns add another layer of buzz and throb as do the synths, Malefic shrieks and howls atop the din, it's pretty heavy and intense. And it sounds good enough that it we find ourselves digging it more than the album, and it sounds like it could very well have just been a second disc of a Black One double cd. Which, well, it is now!
And just in case you need the scoop on Black One, here's our review from when we first listed it:
As you may have noticed, the�aQ speakers have been quite clogged of late with the black sonic tar of glacial doom and slow motion sludge, molten flows of downtuned guitars, rumbling bowel churning drones, impossibly slow and primordially plodding drumming, all tangled up in huge squirming, blackened riffs, like mammoths struggling to loose themselves from pits of black tar. We've also been quite obsessed with the more virulent strains of buzzing, bizarre black metal. Leviathan, Xasthur, Benighted Leams, Blackdeath, Deathspell Omega, Furze, Lurker Of Chalice and the like. But just imagine for a moment, if that river of sludge we love so much ran right through the darkened Nordic forest, or if you took all that buzz and fuzz and held it under a thick layer of black pitch, while it struggled desperately for breath, or if you took the bombinating blur of Burzum and slowed it waaaaay doooooooown, or better yet, what if Dylan Carlson of Earth grew up listening to Darkthrone and Mayhem instead of Hendrix and the Mentors. Well you'd probably get something like Black One. To be honest, what forms the basis of Black One is really not all that different than other SUNNO))) records. It's still a series of 16 rpm metal riffs, morphed beautifully into plodding hypnotic smears of metallic ambience. The blackness here comes from several sources: the art and the imagery for one, a very metal looking cover drawing, olde English fonts, O'Malley and Anderson have adopted properly metal monickers for the instruments used: axe subs, icy inverted crosswinds upon four string zamboni, grail, glacial winds, calls from beyond the grave! Then there is the presence of two current BM legends, Malefic from Xasthur and Wrest from Leviathan. That said, there are moments, where SUNNO)))'s immediately recognizable sludge does twist itself into more black metal shapes, and it's those moments that Black One truly taps into a direct line to the fiery abyss. Imagine listening to Immortal through some sort of time warp, where Blizzard Beasts is stretched into a single icy contrail spread out over 666 years, a hazy black cloud swallowing everything in its path. Add some truly frosty and fucked up vocals and ghostly guitars from Wrest and Malefic, all manner of gorgeous sonic filigree from Australian experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and noise guru John Weise, some text by Seldon Hunt, and that oh so familiar Sunn-y O'Malley�artwork, lyrics via Dead (from Mayhem), Malefic, Wrest and Abbath (of Immortal) and you might just be looking at a truly and utterly black one indeed.
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
White One is bundled with the very rare LXNDXN Subcamden Underworld Hallo'ween 2003 (The Libations Of Samhain), a cd originally released on Arthur Magazine's Bastet label, which features a single 50 minute live track, recorded on Halloween 2003 in London, a massive roiling downtuned dronescape, plenty of slow motion riffing and bowel loosening rumble, as well as a pretty funny interview which took place on Resonance FM and features Edwin Pouncey (aka Savage Pencil) interviewing what sounds like a VERY stoned, and slightly goofy Anderson and O'Malley. Even though the live track is a killer, it's worth it for the interview alone!
And just in case you need the scoop on White One, here's our review from when we first listed it:
Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us!
As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks. Previous efforts like "Flight Of The Behemoth" have been faves round here, and they also made a fan out of pagan psych-rock maven / monolith expert Julian Cope, who appears here on the 25 minute opening track "My Wall" reading an epic poem! It's a bit like Current 93 but of course waaaay heavier. SUNNO))) has some other heavy friends involved with this recording too, among them the mighty Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth!) who brings in some of the fucked up programmed drumming that makes his Thrones project so special. Meanwhile, Jessamine/Fontanelle's Rex Ritter not only plays on the disc, but took care of the recording and mixing too. And the doom-folk direction that Cope's presence suggests is furthered by vocal contributions from Nordic ice witch doom vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter (whom some will know from her band with Greg Anderson, Thorr's Hammer). The final, spacey track with her and Preston dueting is a dronefolk dream. Holy Wotan! Space rockers, drone fiends, pagans, and doom heads alike all should worship this dark SUNN... And we're told the recording session apparently yielded enough material for more than one album, thus was born White2 which would follow not soon after!
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
The bonus discs on White Two seem to be the ones everyone is after. A criminally limited double cd (one 3", one 5") originally released on Scott Slimm's aRCHIVE label, we tried to order 100 copies, but it sold out so fast we never saw a single copy. So now here's your chance, a double disc of live SUNNO))), recorded live in Brooklyn in 2004, featuring SUNNO)))as a trio, O'Malley, Anderson, and Rex Ritter from Jessamine. ANd again more of what you love. Slow and heavy and strangely beautiful...
And just in case you need the scoop on White Two, here's our review from when we first listed it:
And the vibrations continue...like the ice age envisioned in that recent movie The Day After Tomorrow, White2 by Earth-worshippers SUNNO))) has finally arrived to obliterate all life foolish enough to have futilely flourished in the interim since the release of their previous album White1 last year. It's doom time, folks. For the unprepared among you, we should explain that the Earth just mentioned is of course the band not the planet, with Earth (and SUNNO)))) being the lowest of the low, sub-Melvins, drone-out, heavy-riff-ruling outfits around. Earth came first, but over their last few albums SUNNO))) really have moved beyond the Earth tribute phase, and certainly crossed over from the metal realm into the indie-rock and avant-experimental spheres as well, with an Arthur magazine sponsored tour and write-ups in The Wire to prove it. Maybe they're now the hipster "metal" band of choice but we won't hold that against them -- they're freaking good! (Believe it or not, we hear that some folks in Poland have formed a band in tribute to SUNNO))), known as MOOND)))! If they release anything we can get, we'll let you know.)
White2 was recorded at the same sessions as White1, which saw the core SUNNO))) duo of guitarists Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, Engine Kid) augmented by guests including Rex Ritter (Jessamine) and Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, Earth itself) both of whom appear on this disc. White1 also featured a recital by none other than head Head Julian Cope. He's not present on White2, but in his place they've installed someone perhaps even more pagan: vocalist Attila Cishar, the Hungarian black metal icon best known for fronting Norway's infamous Mayhem on their classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album!
This disc ("optimized for blackened sub-bass systems" just so you know) clocks in at 63 minutes, divided amongst three long tracks, the first of which, "Hell-O)))-Ween", starts things off as you'd expect: it's a sonic glacier, prime Earth-styled SUNNO))) drone-grind. But track two, "bassAliens" moves into weirder, more abstract territory, a haunting, cave-dwelling improv whose electric noises could be the awakening of some cosmic Cthulhoid monster. Then the last and longest track "Decay2 (Nihil's Maw)" ups this album's quota of terror and beauty both. A spacey, droney, dark dreamscream from the throat of Attila... White2 is metal maybe, experimental yes, and quite a scary success. The farther-out stuff on this disc could be and has been rightly been compared to the music of Keiji Haino, cloaked in the same blackness. From riffage to ritual, recommended.
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
The first 5000 copies come with a bonus disc titled SatanOscillateMyMetallicSonatas (a nod to Soundgarden, there?) that features a single 28 minute track called "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom" guest starring Dylan Carlson from Earth! Before we go any further... are you thinking what we're thinking... April Fools? SUNNO))) and Boris And Earth!!! And I bet you at least some of the bonus track is in E!! Boy, did we call it. And actually Atsuo from Boris confided in a friend of AQ that indeed, part of the reason they got Dylan to guest was because of that April Fool's review! How cool is that?!?
Anyway, the bonus track is a monstrous wall of churning guitars, with occasional howled almost death metal vocals buried way down in the mix, and languorous Earth Hex-like twang guitar draped lazily above a churning blackhole ambience. So good.
Besides Dylan Carlson of Earth, there are lots of other guest performers including Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston from Thrones (also ex-Melvins, ex-Earth), Kim Thayil from Soundgarden (aha) and Rex Ritter from Jessamine.
Packaged beautifully in a mini cd style gatefold, with AMAZING cover art, black on black with weird muted color and text printed in glossy varnish and metallic gold, both bands be-robed and standing in a cornfield, a full color booklet attached to the inside, a metallic sticker on the front, each copy individually numbered.
It would be nice to think that These Records have only been releasing the reissues of "Deceit" -- This Heat's second and final proper album -- every ten years after the original release of the album in 1981. The first CD pressings arrived on 1991, and this
Almost all of the histories of UK avant-garde music have claim allegiances to This Heat, as Punk, New Wave, Industrial, Prog Rock, Jim O'Rourke, and even Electronica place the seminal outfit somewhere at the beginnings of their respective etymologies. To a certain extent all of these histories may be true, but then again the broad aesthetic and ideological contexts between all of those different styles may cross-each other out, leaving This Heat as one of the few artistic forces that truly exists all by itself.
Just a trio comprised of Charles Hayward, Charles Bullen, and Gareth Williams, This Heat manifested an incredibly explosive sound that hybridized all of the countercultural fury of Punk and Situationism, within a sonic context informed by technological advances of musique concrete techniques and electro-acoustic synthesis. Musically speaking, This Heat did not espouse the three chord structures or the snarling postures of Punk, instead injecting the complex pop agendas of Brian Eno (which were purposefully seeking to conflict the archetypes of rock into a new aesthetic language) with nervous tension building up to dramatic cathartic releases. "Deceit" is a record that was so ahead of its time that it has taken twenty years for artists like Fennesz and Radiohead to articulate ideas with such intensity and attention to the play between musical creation and technological advances. So highly recommended.
It's tough to review the records of This Heat separately, knowing that there is a box set, a box set most of us had been waiting for for years! Like imagine if you heard about Christmas, and spent the next decade waking up and rushing out to the living room only to find nothing there. That's what it was like waiting for the long rumored This Heat box. It seems almost self evident that it is honestly one of the few box sets, that is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. But okay, $100 might be a bit much to drop on a band you're not all the familiar with. And probably some folks already have some of these discs, as they were briefly available in the nineties. But let's be upfront and warn you straight up, we know very few people, who on hearing any music from This Heat, even a single song, weren't immediately compelled to get their hands on every single bit of recorded material they could find. The music of This Heat is most definitely that powerful, that intense, having informed almost all of the music we've loved since. And sounding as fresh and forward thinking today as it did when it was first recorded.
Before we get to reviewing This Heat's second release, the Health And Efficiency ep from 1980, let's give you some background on (and no small amount of gushing over) one of our all time favorite bands.
Trying to explain why this band is so good is sort of like trying to explain why ice cream is so delicious. Or why Bush is such a terrible president.
Or maybe it's kind of like writing an introduction for the new Pynchon novel. Or telling a few jokes before Richard Pryor comes on stage. Or throwing a couple quick passes before Joe Montana comes on the field. It's that daunting, that overwhelming, that impossible.
The trio of Charles Hayward, Charles Bullen and Gareth Williams known collectively as This Heat were one of the few bands that literally changed people's lives. Changed the way folks thought about music. I (Andee) couldn't believe music like this actually existed. It was everything I wanted to listen to before I knew that THIS was exactly what I wanted to listen to. Hit It Or Quit It publisher / rock critic / indie scenestress Jessica Hopper once wrote that she literally pee'd her pants the first time she heard This Heat. And it's not hard to see why. Without This Heat, modern, alternative, avant-garde music as we know it would be a whole different beast. Post-rock, math-rock, avant rock are hugely indebted to the genre shattering experimentalism of This Heat. Tortoise, You Fantastic, Yona Kit, Brise Glace, Psychic Paramount, Laddio Bollocko, Radian, Village Of Savoonga, Larsen, Starfuckers, Circle, Salvatore, I Am Spoonbender -- none of those bands would even exist if it weren't for This Heat, or if they still did you can bet they would sound a whole lot different. And that's just off the top of our heads, AND that's -just- bands whose sound directly reflects the influence of This Heat. Imagine how many performers and artists were influenced by This Heat but who let that influence manifest itself in not so obvious ways.
We once described This Heat as "Krautrock-ish hyper rhythmic tape-looped prog." Which comes close to succinctly describing the magical musical alchemy of This Heat, but still only scratches the surface. The sound of This Heat is rhythm and texture and dynamics. The recording studio as instrument. Every sound and every song is based on rhythm and texture. There are hooks, and melodies, but they exist to serve the rhythm and are often born from the deft manipulation of sound and tempo. Even the most static and repetitive parts manage to sound -musical-. There are vocals, but they are minimal and otherworldly, weary and sing songy and completely mesmerizing. A droning musical accompaniment to the haunting whirs and clanging percussion in the background.
Their entire catalog has gone in and out of print over the years, mostly out, with all of their records pretty much completely unavailable for the last 7 or 8 years. Rumors of a complete box set and reissue campaign began to circulate a few years back and it has finally happened and it's everything we could have hoped for and more. Every single release, remastered and repackaged in swank digipaks. We're almost jealous of folks who have never even heard This Heat. The thought of entering into this music completely blind, is almost frightening, as the world of This Heat is so singular, so powerful, it will be difficult to ever listen to music the same way again. Trust us.
The Health And Efficiency ep followed This Heat's self titled debut and took their sound in a strangely pop (for them at least) direction, sounding like some tweaked and twisted version of Wire, the title track all angular new wave guitars, monotone vocals, driving drums, strange convoluted arrangements and creepy background sound effects before the whole thing splinters into super abstract rhythmic experimentalism, looped grooves, played over and over, while sounds float and careen in the background, so incredibly hypnotic and repetitive. The second track on Health And Efficiency (which runs a brief twenty minutes) is "Graphic/Varispeed (45rpm)", a lengthy drone, a warm synth whir that surfaces within other This Heat tracks, recontextualized and often chopped up and reassembled, but here, it's a slow shifting slow motion single tone soundscape, with the tone occasionally being pitched up or down, very simple but quite haunting, and a cool glimpse at how This Heat managed to mix and match, use and reuse, without ever treading water. Kinda pricey, as it's only 20 minutes long, and two songs, but it's still well worth it.
It's tough to review the records of This Heat separately, knowing that there is a box set, a box set most of us had been waiting for for years! Like imagine if you heard about Christmas, and spent the next decade waking up and rushing out to the living room only to find nothing there. That's what it was like waiting for the long rumored This Heat box. It seems almost self evident that it is honestly one of the few box sets, that is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. But okay, $100 might be a bit much to drop on a band you're not all the familiar with. And probably some folks already have some of these discs, as they were briefly available in the nineties. But let's be upfront and warn you straight up, we know very few people, who on hearing any music from This Heat, even a single song, weren't immediately compelled to get their hands on every single bit of recorded material they could find. The music of This Heat is most definitely that powerful, that intense, having informed almost all of the music we've loved since. And sounding as fresh and forward thinking today as it did when it was first recorded.
Before we get to reviewing Live 80/81, a killer live disc that was included in the box set as a bonus disc, let's give you some background on (and no small amount of gushing over) one of our all time favorite bands.
Trying to explain why this band is so good is sort of like trying to explain why ice cream is so delicious. Or why Bush is such a terrible president.
Or maybe it's kind of like writing an introduction for the new Pynchon novel. Or telling a few jokes before Richard Pryor comes on stage. Or throwing a couple quick passes before Joe Montana comes on the field. It's that daunting, that overwhelming, that impossible.
The trio of Charles Hayward, Charles Bullen and Gareth Williams known collectively as This Heat were one of the few bands that literally changed people's lives. Changed the way folks thought about music. I (Andee) couldn't believe music like this actually existed. It was everything I wanted to listen to before I knew that THIS was exactly what I wanted to listen to. Hit It Or Quit It publisher / rock critic / indie scenestress Jessica Hopper once wrote that she literally pee'd her pants the first time she heard This Heat. And it's not hard to see why. Without This Heat, modern, alternative, avant-garde music as we know it would be a whole different beast. Post-rock, math-rock, avant rock are hugely indebted to the genre shattering experimentalism of This Heat. Tortoise, You Fantastic, Yona Kit, Brise Glace, Psychic Paramount, Laddio Bollocko, Radian, Village Of Savoonga, Larsen, Starfuckers, Circle, Salvatore, I Am Spoonbender -- none of those bands would even exist if it weren't for This Heat, or if they still did you can bet they would sound a whole lot different. And that's just off the top of our heads, AND that's -just- bands whose sound directly reflects the influence of This Heat. Imagine how many performers and artists were influenced by This Heat but who let that influence manifest itself in not so obvious ways.
We once described This Heat as "Krautrock-ish hyper rhythmic tape-looped prog." Which comes close to succinctly describing the magical musical alchemy of This Heat, but still only scratches the surface. The sound of This Heat is rhythm and texture and dynamics. The recording studio as instrument. Every sound and every song is based on rhythm and texture. There are hooks, and melodies, but they exist to serve the rhythm and are often born from the deft manipulation of sound and tempo. Even the most static and repetitive parts manage to sound -musical-. There are vocals, but they are minimal and otherworldly, weary and sing songy and completely mesmerizing. A droning musical accompaniment to the haunting whirs and clanging percussion in the background.
Their entire catalog has gone in and out of print over the years, mostly out, with all of their records pretty much completely unavailable for the last 7 or 8 years. Rumors of a complete box set and reissue campaign began to circulate a few years back and it has finally happened and it's everything we could have hoped for and more. Every single release, remastered and repackaged in swank digipaks. We're almost jealous of folks who have never even heard This Heat. The thought of entering into this music completely blind, is almost frightening, as the world of This Heat is so singular, so powerful, it will be difficult to ever listen to music the same way again. Trust us.
Live 80/81 is a compilation of live tracks recorded between 1980 and 1981 all over Europe and sequenced to resemble the set list the band used on tour in the eighties. Recorded using a single stereo mic, the sound is less that crystal clear, it's blurry and murky and lo-fi, but captures the band in their element at the top of their game. And the sound quality almost adds to the music, the band were such experimentalists, you can almost imagine them spending weeks in the studio trying to perfect the perfect lo-fi method of recording. But the songs are amazing, the extended rhythmic jams, the dense bursts of furious angular pop, it's simply awesome to hear the band recreate pieces that on record relied so heavily on the studio, more evidence as to the genius of This Heat. Rumor has it there are tons of other live recordings soon to get the deluxe reissue treatment as well. We can hardly wait.
It's tough to review the records of This Heat separately, knowing that there is a box set, a box set most of us had been waiting for for years! Like imagine if you heard about Christmas, and spent the next decade waking up and rushing out to the living room only to find nothing there. That's what it was like waiting for the long rumored This Heat box. It seems almost self evident that it is honestly one of the few box sets, that is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. But okay, $100 might be a bit much to drop on a band you're not all the familiar with. And probably some folks already have some of these discs, as they were briefly available in the nineties. But let's be upfront and warn you straight up, we know very few people, who on hearing any music from This Heat, even a single song, weren't immediately compelled to get their hands on every single bit of recorded material they could find. The music of This Heat is most definitely that powerful, that intense, having informed almost all of the music we've loved since. And sounding as fresh and forward thinking today as it did when it was first recorded.
Before we get to reviewing Made Available, a posthumous release of This Heat's Peel Sessions, let's give you some background on (and no small amount of gushing over) one of our all time favorite bands.
Trying to explain why this band is so good is sort of like trying to explain why ice cream is so delicious. Or why Bush is such a terrible president.
Or maybe it's kind of like writing an introduction for the new Pynchon novel. Or telling a few jokes before Richard Pryor comes on stage. Or throwing a couple quick passes before Joe Montana comes on the field. It's that daunting, that overwhelming, that impossible.
The trio of Charles Hayward, Charles Bullen and Gareth Williams known collectively as This Heat were one of the few bands that literally changed people's lives. Changed the way folks thought about music. I (Andee) couldn't believe music like this actually existed. It was everything I wanted to listen to before I knew that THIS was exactly what I wanted to listen to. Hit It Or Quit It publisher / rock critic / indie scenestress Jessica Hopper once wrote that she literally pee'd her pants the first time she heard This Heat. And it's not hard to see why. Without This Heat, modern, alternative, avant-garde music as we know it would be a whole different beast. Post-rock, math-rock, avant rock are hugely indebted to the genre shattering experimentalism of This Heat. Tortoise, You Fantastic, Yona Kit, Brise Glace, Psychic Paramount, Laddio Bollocko, Radian, Village Of Savoonga, Larsen, Starfuckers, Circle, Salvatore, I Am Spoonbender -- none of those bands would even exist if it weren't for This Heat, or if they still did you can bet they would sound a whole lot different. And that's just off the top of our heads, AND that's -just- bands whose sound directly reflects the influence of This Heat. Imagine how many performers and artists were influenced by This Heat but who let that influence manifest itself in not so obvious ways.
We once described This Heat as "Krautrock-ish hyper rhythmic tape-looped prog." Which comes close to succinctly describing the magical musical alchemy of This Heat, but still only scratches the surface. The sound of This Heat is rhythm and texture and dynamics. The recording studio as instrument. Every sound and every song is based on rhythm and texture. There are hooks, and melodies, but they exist to serve the rhythm and are often born from the deft manipulation of sound and tempo. Even the most static and repetitive parts manage to sound -musical-. There are vocals, but they are minimal and otherworldly, weary and sing songy and completely mesmerizing. A droning musical accompaniment to the haunting whirs and clanging percussion in the background.
Their entire catalog has gone in and out of print over the years, mostly out, with all of their records pretty much completely unavailable for the last 7 or 8 years. Rumors of a complete box set and reissue campaign began to circulate a few years back and it has finally happened and it's everything we could have hoped for and more. Every single release, remastered and repackaged in swank digipaks. We're almost jealous of folks who have never even heard This Heat. The thought of entering into this music completely blind, is almost frightening, as the world of This Heat is so singular, so powerful, it will be difficult to ever listen to music the same way again. Trust us.
In 1996, This Heat's 1977 Peel Sessions were finally released and demonstrated once again that This Heat were untouchable, effortlessly unfurling a sound equal parts avant pop, krautrock, progrock, musique concrete and a handful of parts that defied easy classification. Every track here a jaw dropping, mind blowing performance. Especially the new version of "Horizontal Hold", one of This Heat's finest moments already, played here with much more verve and vigor and with a sound quality so much clearer, a recording so incredibly hot, that the song is reborn and completely confounds and amazes. The whole session is rhythmically dense, rife with bastardized pop, incredibly complex arrangements all rendered again in such a way that they are emotional and moving, instead of just intellectual musical exercises. And the sound is so crystal clear, that you can hear a band at the top of their game, taking over the BBC studio and using it like they would a second guitar or another drummer. The Peel Sessions also include a handful of songs that never made it onto records proper. All as good as anything on their official releases.
It's tough to review the records of This Heat separately, knowing that there is a box set, a box set most of us had been waiting for for years! Like imagine if you heard about Christmas, and spent the next decade waking up and rushing out to the living room only to find nothing there. That's what it was like waiting for the long rumored This Heat box. It seems almost self evident that it is honestly one of the few box sets, that is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. But okay, $100 might be a bit much to drop on a band you're not all the familiar with. And probably some folks already have some of these discs, as they were briefly available in the nineties. But let's be upfront and warn you straight up, we know very few people, who on hearing any music from This Heat, even a single song, weren't immediately compelled to get their hands on every single bit of recorded material they could find. The music of This Heat is most definitely that powerful, that intense, having informed almost all of the music we've loved since. And sounding as fresh and forward thinking today as it did when it was first recorded.
Before we get to reviewing Repeat, a posthumous release of This Heat's tape loop experiments and various bits of studio exploration, let's give you some background on (and no small amount of gushing over) one of our all time favorite bands.
Trying to explain why this band is so good is sort of like trying to explain why ice cream is so delicious. Or why Bush is such a terrible president.
Or maybe it's kind of like writing an introduction for the new Pynchon novel. Or telling a few jokes before Richard Pryor comes on stage. Or throwing a couple quick passes before Joe Montana comes on the field. It's that daunting, that overwhelming, that impossible.
The trio of Charles Hayward, Charles Bullen and Gareth Williams known collectively as This Heat were one of the few bands that literally changed people's lives. Changed the way folks thought about music. I (Andee) couldn't believe music like this actually existed. It was everything I wanted to listen to before I knew that THIS was exactly what I wanted to listen to. Hit It Or Quit It publisher / rock critic / indie scenestress Jessica Hopper once wrote that she literally pee'd her pants the first time she heard This Heat. And it's not hard to see why. Without This Heat, modern, alternative, avant-garde music as we know it would be a whole different beast. Post-rock, math-rock, avant rock are hugely indebted to the genre shattering experimentalism of This Heat. Tortoise, You Fantastic, Yona Kit, Brise Glace, Psychic Paramount, Laddio Bollocko, Radian, Village Of Savoonga, Larsen, Starfuckers, Circle, Salvatore, I Am Spoonbender -- none of those bands would even exist if it weren't for This Heat, or if they still did you can bet they would sound a whole lot different. And that's just off the top of our heads, AND that's -just- bands whose sound directly reflects the influence of This Heat. Imagine how many performers and artists were influenced by This Heat but who let that influence manifest itself in not so obvious ways.
We once described This Heat as "Krautrock-ish hyper rhythmic tape-looped prog." Which comes close to succinctly describing the magical musical alchemy of This Heat, but still only scratches the surface. The sound of This Heat is rhythm and texture and dynamics. The recording studio as instrument. Every sound and every song is based on rhythm and texture. There are hooks, and melodies, but they exist to serve the rhythm and are often born from the deft manipulation of sound and tempo. Even the most static and repetitive parts manage to sound -musical-. There are vocals, but they are minimal and otherworldly, weary and sing songy and completely mesmerizing. A droning musical accompaniment to the haunting whirs and clanging percussion in the background.
Their entire catalog has gone in and out of print over the years, mostly out, with all of their records pretty much completely unavailable for the last 7 or 8 years. Rumors of a complete box set and reissue campaign began to circulate a few years back and it has finally happened and it's everything we could have hoped for and more. Every single release, remastered and repackaged in swank digipaks. We're almost jealous of folks who have never even heard This Heat. The thought of entering into this music completely blind, is almost frightening, as the world of This Heat is so singular, so powerful, it will be difficult to ever listen to music the same way again. Trust us.
In 1993, a disc of unearthed This Heat recordings was released and consisted of three lengthy tracks of tape loop experiments and random rhythmic explorations. Repeat has come to be This Heat's defining work even though it is essentially a record of outtakes and pieces meant to be incorporated into other songs. But it's hard to argue with the 20 minute title track, and endless, almost funky groove, punctuated by weird electronic swells, sprinkles of woodblock percussion and occasional handclaps but held together by one of the most amazing drum parts ever. A relentless pound and shuffle, drenched in effects, sound very dubby, but also very krautrock, a tripped out blissed out drone drenched rhythmic space jam never matched to this day. Every time this is played for a friend, musician or not, the listener is inevitably confused, perplexed and then quickly obsessed with hearing more. The second track, appropriately titled "Metal" is an abstract soundscape of, well, metal, clanging, clinking, like some ancient junkyard gamelan, almost like the previous piece transcribed for sheet metal, garbage can, metal pipe and dumpster. The metallic symphony shifts and sways, melodies surface, rhythms twist and turn, all very hypnotic and quite lovely. The final track revisits a song on Health and Efficiency, but slows it down a bit to become "Graphic/Varispeed (45rpm)", the same sort of slow, murky drone, just made even slower, so more tonal colors surface, and the subtle shit is much more noticeable, a gloriously dreamlike warm warbly whir.
What can we say, this is just a really cool record. Please Please Please is electro-lounge at its finest- totally ambient and dreamy with a quirky bit thrown in here and there for good measure. Most of the album is instrumental, building slightly in speed to accommodate the minimal, sharp, airy vocals that come in on the third to last song and to make way for Thomas's most daring feat on the record -- a remix of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams." If you are as big a fan of well remixed classics as some of us are, you'll be pleased pleased pleased. Overall, Please Please Please is a total chillout record perfect for summers on the porch. LOVE IT!!
From the same label that brough us the amazing September Songs tape from Souvenir's Young America comes another blast of furious rock, this time, not epic metallic post rock, instead, Virginia's Tigershark traffic in old school post punk noiserock with a bit of a metal bent. AmRep, Jehu, Dazzling Killmen, you know, grinding angular guitars, big riffs, convoluted rhythms and crushing drumming, howled vocals, tons of lurching breakdowns, stop start arrangements. Not a lot of bands do this sort of stuff any more and it's a real shame, cuz listening to this band totally hit the spot, it had us fighting the urge to head bang and air guitar like it was 1995 all over again. The label mentions bands like The�Melvins, His Hero Is Gone, Akimbo, Baroness, and sure, we hear some of that, but it's much more classic sounding, heavy and catchy, intense and brutal, weird enough to keep it interesting, but not so much 'experimental' as creative and original. A fresh new take on an old sound that we had been missing like crazy.�
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. On blood red cassettes with super pro full color artwork.
Curses! It's the worst when a new issue of one of our favorite magazines, Ugly Things, shows up on a "list week"! All we want to do is sit and read the darn thing -- and there's A LOT of it to read, this ish is up to 224 pages -- but instead we can only skim thru and save it for next week when we're not quite so busy writing music reviews. Yeah there will be a lot of work to do then too, but we'll MAKE time to relax and read our Ugly Things. After all, it's about a lot of our favorite types of music: '60s psych, garage, freakbeat, proto-prog, "wild sounds from past dimensions" as they say on the cover. This time around, there's features on The Music Machine, The Attack, Radio Birdman, The Namelosers, Freedom's Children, The Light, The Rubber City Rebels, and much much more... some of these bands more obscure than others but in all cases, whether we'd heard of 'em before or not, totally fascinatin' reading (well, what we've gotten to so far anyway, but we know all of it's gonna be good). We did delve into the articles about South African psych legends Freedom's Children, which included a interesting tidbit about the use of psychedelic lighting at their live shows. Apparently they'd gotten someone to rig up a primitive strobe light, without realizing the effect it might have on people prone to epileptic seizures... soon they figured that out and put warnings on their show posters, but funnily enough non-epileptics, who just thought it was "cool", would go on and have "seizures" anyway, they'd call it "having a frothy". Crazy hippies!
A few other articles of note: there's a fascinating piece entitled "Everything You Know About 'Louie Louie' Is Wrong" (by Bruce Duff -- is he the Jesters Of Destiny Bruce Duff we wonder?).... And perhaps the most bizarre and interesting investigation this issue, is the article about the sneaky "karaoke rock" of Steve Kaczorowski, a possibly delusional wanna be rock star from Long Island who released several now-collectable records of himself singing OVER other people's music, totally uncredited... you got to read it to believe it. Of course, there's also the usual informative and entertaining pages and pages and pages of music, dvd, and book reviews, among which you'll find Johan Kugelberg's offering: "Times Ain't Like They Used To Be: Good Records That Came Out During The Suck Years", delving into some personal faves from 1983-1997. Ok, gotta stop flipping through this and get on with my other reviews, though I don't want to...
Two words: Fuck Yeah!! Three more words: Fuzz fuzz fuzz. Another word: Word.
Oh okay, let's see, you probably want to know who's on this comp, like it matters, have you heard of any of these obscure bands? From A to X: Albert Band, All & Nothing, Ciclon, Expresion, Galaxia, Ibiza Sound, Madera De Cipres, The Matches, Modification, Pinonate, Shock, Skorpis (two cuts from them), Unidades, Rudy Ventura, and Xetxu. Fortunately, the 20-page cd booklet provides useful notes (in both English and Spanish) on all of 'em, plus full-color thumbnail repros of the original rare 45 rpm vinyl sleeve art. This is another excellent addition to the ongoing bounty of -sweet- Spanish psych/prog reissues we've seen lately, from Agamenon to Zarpa... "The Spanish Trip" (another cool comp) keeps on tripping! So what are -these- Andergraun Vibrations all about? Some of 'em groovy, some of 'em poppy, some of 'em melancholic, some of 'em heavy, some of 'em funky, some of 'em all of the above... there's disco horns and proto-metal both. Prog flutes and acid rock guitar. Dramatic vocals and garage scuzz. All sorts of retro coolness in other words. What Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils vol. III was to Sweden, this is to Spain. Oh and despite the date range of '70 to '78, twelve of the sixteen tracks are from '73 or before, and most of 'em sound even earlier (more '60s than '70s).
FYI: 'twas originally released on expensive import vinyl (in two volumes, out of print) with this cd comprising all of the 1st and about half of the 2nd volume.
There has not been a shortage of amazing soul reissues recently and we sure as heck aren't complaining. But we gotta say that the two new comps of golden era soul and funk we're listing this time out are two absolute must haves for vintage soul and funk lovers! You'll hear about the great "Super Cool California Soul 2" comp elsewhere on this list but right now let's focus on this hot collection of deep hitting, soul wrenching, body moving, Florida fried funk! An amazing collection of songs pulled from rare and mostly impossible to find 45's from funk artists all across Florida during the prime-time funk years of 1968-1975. While lots of soul comps throw around the word Funk with careless abandon we find many of them to be way more old school soul and even doo-wop sounding where this is for sure some 100 percent fortified FUNK! Fuzzy guitars, breakbeats that would make any hip-hop producer drool and all sorts of in your face attitude! Everytime we play this (which has pretty much been daily since we've gotten it in) someone in the store comes to check out what we're playing and says something along the lines of "Damn, this is good!" and we couldn't agree more!
