Originally released as a super limited 10", local moody metallic chamber ensemble Amber Asylum's latest Garden Of Love is now available on cd, again limited, this time to 750 copies, packaged in a mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve, and includes the previously unreleased bonus track "Serenade" available only on this here cd. Four brand new tracks that take Amber Asylum's gothic strings and vocals sound even further out, having now expanded their lineup to include former members of The Gault and SF black metal legends Weakling. The opening track is quite possibly the best thing we've heard from them, a brooding dramatic soundscape of intensely moody strings, and anguished melodies. Locked in by simple almost programmed sounding rhythms with haunting operatic vocals drifting ghostlike through the mix. Sounds a bit like Skepticism with a string section, and you know that is a very good thing. The second track heads into almost Goblin territory at points with super aggressive pizzicato strings, bows sawing away at the strings emitting truly ominous melodies. The rest of the record is far more tranquil, expansive, romantic, epic, melancholic yet hopeful, with delicate crystalline piano figures, very subtle strings and sweetly plaintive vocals. So nice.
You know, you think by now we'd be sick of the metallic post rock thing, the slow builds, the epic crescendos, the mathy drumming, the explosive metallic blow outs, the spidery riffage, the Godspeed like ambience, but fuck it, we're not, we LOVE that shit, especially when someone does it right. Or does it differently. Mixes it up a little while retaining the bits that made us dig that sound in the first place.
Thanks to aQ pal Dave S. for the heads up on these two bands, both of the math rock post metal whateveryoucallit variety, but each with a distinctly different take on the sound. Anapparatus is the band that lured us in, their sound is sharp and hard, heavy and metallic, but with a total screamo edge. Howled vocals over churning minor key riffage, super powerful drumming, all locked into a loosely post-metal framework, lots of long stretches of tribal understated rhythms, chiming guitar harmonics, soft sheets of feedback, but then when the heavy parts kick in, and the vocalist shrieks, it's magic, like if Godspeed or Explosions In The Sky recorded for Gravity Records in the nineties. Some of the riffs are SO catchy, and the band unwind terse super tight mini-epics, that manage to sound super controlled but sprawl wildly at the same time. But it's definitely the vocals that seal the deal, transforming what was already a killer mathrock band following in the well worn footprints of Isis and Pelican and the like, into something intense and passionate and angry and aggro and fuck it EMO. Way mathier than any of the above mentioned bands, and so much more impassioned, this is post metal punk rock for sure. All three tracks destroy. We'll definitely do our best to track down more from these guys.
But Llange aren't too shabby either, although right off the bat, their take on the sound is a bit more traditional, but like we said, it's a sound we love, and Llange do it well, wrapping guitars in soft billowy reverb, the drums weaving a dense framework for the soaring guitars, the arrangements flowing organically from slow brood, to heavy moody dirge, to full on blown out psych jam to shimmery near balladic drift. The band does get almost metal at times, but chooses to remain just this side of full on downtuned crush, which suits them just fine. The closer adds gorgeous crooned vocals to the warm whirring synths and tight mathy drumming, the melodies sweetly melancholy, building to a seriously heavy finale that would most definitely give Conifer a run for their math rock post metal money...
Right from the beginning, the second recording from Avsolutized to make the list, this time an earlier demo tape, limited to 99 copies, of which we got the last dozen, so these will no doubt go FAST.
Right out of the gate, these Japanese black metal weirdos demonstrate exactly why we've barely been able to keep their cd in stock, with some haunting clean guitar and some INSANE falsetto vocals, like an unhinged hair metal howl, that slips from guttural grunt to warbly croon all the way back up to that freaky falsetto, in a single stretch, and then the band kicks in, exploding in a frenzy of beautifully blown out black buzz, and chaotic drumming, and those vocals continuously slipping and sliding and soaring all over the place.
The buzz slips dramatically into some woozy more midtempo Burzumic lopes, with the guitars unfurling soaring melodies and haunting atmospherics, always grounded by a sudden burst of howling screeches or a burst of off kilter rhythms and machine like flurries of blast beat mayhem. Weird to think we might not have ever heard these guys if they hadn't just emailed us out of the blue. Even weirder is that we just discovered there may be some link between Avsolutized, and their equally demented black metal countrymen Arkha Sva, especially considering the distinctive Arkha calligraphy that adorns the tape cover. But none of that matters once you're immersed in the swirling black world of Avsolutized, furious and blackened and heavy, all twisted into strange shapes and tangled up with those insane and impossible vocals, and some seriously inhuman lightspeed drumming. And again, LIMITED TO 99 COPIES! We have less than 15. Each one housed in a cool extra paneled tape cover, and each one hand numbered.
Not only is this a killer split of evil black thrash, Japan's Barbatos and Finland's Incriminated, each offering up songs dealing with war and history, but it's a whole new format you've never seen before (really!), and is pretty damn out there. More on that in a second.
The music first. Barbatos from Japan, are amazing evil black thrashers, with a definite punk vibe, the guitars howling, the drums crashing, the spirit of Venom, Motorhead, but supercharged and blackened. The perfect match for Incriminated from Finland, who walk in the same bloodied footsteps as Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, a black thrash, furious and raw, primitive and black.
The Incriminated song is called "Blue Swastikas" but before you freak out, as the band states in their liner notes: "If you think Incriminated are nazis for dealing with historical topics, then you are nazi yourself!" Okay, so they're not Nazis and the song is about some classic WWII battle, maybe they could have come up with a different title since that stuff is a pretty sensitive subject in the black metal world, but whatever�
Both tracks rock furiously, heavy and primitive, buzzing and brutal. But, these aren't cds, nor are they vinyl eps. Instead they are one sided plastic discs, like cds, but each disc has record grooves pressed into the plastic. Designed to be played on record players, but due to the cd sized hole in the middle, it's tough to get it centered, and as far as we know they don't yet make an adapter for that. But it looks amazing, and everyone we show it to has to hold it and touch it and look at it to try to figure out how the heck you play something like this. Fans of raw black metal, as well as weird music, and weird packaging especially will definitely want to check this out.
There are unfortunately, some non-musical factors that contribute to what records we choose to be our Record Of The Week. Cost is one. There have been plenty of $30, or $40, or even $50 records that we've chosen to not make ROTW just because a record like that is often well outside a lot of folks' range of affordability. Once in a while we do make an exception, but that's usually when a record is SO good we just can't say no. Another factor is availability. No matter how great a record is, if we can only ever get 5 or 10 or 20 copies, often not knowing how long it will take to get more, or if we'll be able to get more at all, then we usually choose to highlight it, or if the numbers are super small, not list it at all (which is another reason visiting aQ in person is always a good idea, there's plenty of stuff that doesn't make it onto the list!). Anyway, the point of all this, is that we have been LOVING this Benge record, and until now we've only been able to get it in dribs and drabs, 5 copies here, 2 copies there, but we finally managed to get a bunch. A bunch in this case being about 15 copies. So fair warning, this disc is AWESOME, everyone is gonna want one, so when we sell out, please be patient, we're already doing our best to get more in, it just might take a while. So quick on the trigger, or be ready to wait patiently.
And what kind of record deserves all of these disclaimers? What kind of record can we be so sure all aQ list readers will want? How about a miniature hardcover book, containing a cd with 20 tracks, each track performed on a different synthesizer, from a different year, spanning the years 1968 to 1998, a sonic roadmap of the evolution of the synthesizer, from the first commercially available synths in the late sixties, to the introduction of fully digital synthesizers in the late eighties. Each page of the book featuring a full color photo of the synthesizer used to create that track, along with a schematic of that synth, as well as liner notes all about the synthesizer, as well as how the track was created. That all still might not be enough if the music wasn't amazing, but it is. Somehow strangely cohesive, even though 20 different instruments were used, the sounds here are uniformly blissed out and dreamy, a sort of new age droney drifty washed out shimmer, peppered with beautiful melodies and occasional percussion. Did you love the recent Bogner record of the week? Do you love Tangerine Dream? Popol Vuh? That Edmond De Dyster reissue? Deuter? The William Eaton reissue on EM? Steve Hillage's Rainbow Dome Music? Any number of avant electronic dronemusic cd-r's? Then you'll love this. Or if you're just a music geek that loves these sorts of 'objects', or tech-heads who love vintage gear. Hard to really imagine anyone not digging this big time.
So beyond the book, and the photos and the liner notes and the cool packaging, the music within is truly divine, and fairly diverse, from long slow oceans of sound, swirling and shimmering and sun dappled, to space aged glitch and skitter, hum and buzz, primitive robot disco bleep and bloop, to haunting Goblin-y synthscapery, to fluttery ethereal electronica rife with crystalline melodies and simple rhythms, to super creepy and dark cinematic ambience, to playful electronic shuffles, to blown out expansive cosmic shimmerscapes and on and on.
This could very well have been a super boring demonstration style record, and granted, most of us probably would have bought it anyway for the book and the pix and the strange sounds, being the huge music geeks we are, but thankfully, even with all the extras stripped away, we'd still be left with a gorgeous, playful, pretty, blissed out, warm and shimmery, slightly ominous, dramatic and epic, bleepy and bloopy experimental space age new age ambient electronic record. Which is even better.
Needless to say, WAY recommended. Amazing packaging, a miniature hardcover book, with tons of photos and liner notes and schematics, as well as an introduction by Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner. And again, these have been tough to keep in stock, so if we run out, please be patient while we wait for more to arrive.
We raved about the last sonic meeting between these two dronelords, the legendary Maurizio Bianchi aka MB, and soundscaper Land Use, that record, Psychoneurose, was a return to form for Bianchi, after a string of very disappointing recordings, which we couldn't help but attribute to Land Use. Whatever sort of magic the two were able to conjure up on Psychoneurose, it wasn't an isolated event thankfully as TSE-K find the two teamed up again in 2005 with similarly fantastic results.
Best to begin probably by simple quoting the two quotes from the back of the lp describing the music within, or at least the ideas behind said music. First: "Electro-neural mitosis for hypochondriac neurotonic waves and farraginous tone emissions, achieved during the decline of the 2005". Indeed. And then: "The tabular discovery of the infectious scent is unseating the undelayable grinding of an extremistic property. In The rancid combination of 'Bionic Music' and 'Musique Conrete', the virological zoning renders some synthetic and respectable optograms to the marginal intractability. TSE-K oppresses the phototherabeutic egotism with its pre-recorded electronic sources and deranged acoustic samples. It's the sharp and insignificant scream melted together with mutated voices... Physiological disinfestation and some treatment for the hypochondriac listener." Phew, um... Okay. Let's be honest, we have no idea what any of that means, but it is clouded in mystery, and in that way definitely represents the sounds contained on TSE-K, which at its very core is a minimal drone record, a gorgeous one at that. nothing really harsh or heavy, more dark and soothing and dreamy, but within the swirling low end tones and softly whirring rumbles lurk all manner of melody, and of texture, overtones create strange rhythmic pulses, the sounds occasionally coalesce into thick shimmering throbs, before slipping back into the drifting blackness below. In the case of TSE-K, headphones are most definitely like a diving bell, letting the listener sink into the inky blackness, and observe the various sonic elements and subtle melodic activities that are all tangled up in the blackened layers of warm ominous murk.
The flip side offers up more of the same, but the drone element is a bit more subtle, more of a backdrop for slivers of feedback, and grinding bits of textural buzz, more colors, the shades of black bleeding into browns and reds, not quite as abject and cold, streaks of glowing warmth shooting through a wide open expanse of greyed ambience and abstract post industrial minimalist drift.
We only got a dozen of these, and we're not sure we'll be able to get more when we run out. Fair warning...
Now available on vinyl!!!
The hermetic concern with dualities, whether they be natural and spiritual, mysteries veiled and revealed, fertility and drought, or as the the title of this disc alludes to the religiously symbolic wolf and lamb, greatly inform this collaboration between avant-lutist Jozef Van Wissem and twelve-string wunderkind James Blackshaw. Named after a 13th century cult of Northern European heretics, this is the second installment for the duo, who give us four more pieces to mirror the four from the first installment. Where on their debut disc we felt the sonic fullness of Blackshaw's cascading twelve string repetitions and on one track Van Wissem's progressive use of distorted electronics, on this new album, the sound is more ascetically restrained, favoring Van Wissem's use of reconfigured medieval and classical renaissance compositions into spiraling but lyrically melodic motifs in which Blackshaw adds interlocking labyrinthian figures in DADEAD tuning. This is sacred music for mad monks!
Besides being so damn cool to look at, these see through cassettes are embedded with some of the most entrancing and drift worthy music ever, courtesy of Bulbs!
Made for an art show at 381 Projects in Toronto with visual artist Tracy Maurice, Bulbs tapped into a much more dreamlike and effervescent sound then we've heard from them previously. Using drums, oscillator, Arp, guitar and a one string talker (!), the duo of Bulbs create some serious magical alchemy akin to early '70s Klaus Schulze and the inter-dimensional music of Iasos, if those sounds were floating underwater alongside exotic sea creatures and mystical aquatic plants. We've liked everything we've heard from Bulbs up to this point, including William Sabiston's great and sadly out of print Jyrk release as Ball Lightning and his contributions to recordings by Axolotl. But this just might be our favorite Bulbs recording yet. We get the feeling that Sabiston and the other half of Bulbs, Jon Almaraz, had lots of fantastical thoughts in their heads while recording Infirmary Of Dream, as this really taps into some magical landscapes, making us imagine what this duo could create if they were tapped to produce soundtracks for surreal nature films on some sort of alternate Discovery Channel. Imagine if Seefeel were stripped to its most minimal and merged with the most dreamy aspects of Popul Vuh. Only 50 of these were made and we only have a handful so you know what that means....
It's been a little while since we've heard from Burmese, SF's favorite noise/grind sons. And this new split is actually a blast from the not so distant past, recorded back in 2006, when they were still a three piece, 2 basses and drums, and while as a group, their sound is tough to pin down, sometimes they're thick and dense, sometimes brittle and high end, sometimes they sound like the bastard sons of Drop Dead, other times like the mutant offspring of Whitehouse, but here, they sound like the glorious Burmese of old, a furious off kilter, bass heavy spazzed out grinding three headed speaker shredding club destroying behemoth.
This is chaotic bass heavy grind, with the basses so distorted they often sound like metal guitars, the vocals (all three 'sing') slip from monstrous low end growl to wild feral shriek to punk rock yowl. There's feedback squealing all over the place, and there's even some demented sounding, ultra blown out bass "leads" draped over the top. And holy shit, the drumming, as always, relentless and mathy and complex and fucked up and flailing wildly but still somehow so goddamn tight. There's even a long stretch in the middle of doomy rhythmic minimalism that sounds almost like they're channeling This Heat or Aluk Todolo or both.
We've definitely said it before, but it bears repeating, these guys just might well be the best band in SF.
The flipside features two looooong tracks from new-to-us outfit Potop, who as far as we can tell are Russian (all of their liner notes are in Russian), and counter the short sharp all bass attack of Burmese with their sludge-y slowcore doom, big loud chords ringing out and allowed to slowly decay, long stretches of feedback, throat shredding howls, super spare skeletal drum pound, minor key and creepy, but surprisingly lush and full. Where a lot of bands emulate Sunn 0))) and offer up sludgey amorphous murkscapes, Potop definitely let the chords sing, and let the sunshine in, even if it's quickly swallowed up by shadow. The band do launch into a double time dirge, which if course is still slooooow, piledriving drums beneath guitars all tangled up in sheets of high end squeals. The second track follow suit, another midtempo grinder, with strange strangled vox a la Khanate, and crumbling super distorted guitars and more kick ass and totally pummeling drum crush.
Killer stuff from both outfits. Nice packaging too, thick cardstock sleeves, printed on both sides and held shut with a Japanese style obi, each one hand numbered, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. And be warned, the lps had a rough trip overseas, so none of the sleeves are absolutely perfect, so if you're a crazy anal collector in it for the condition more than the sounds within, you are hereby warned.
Three new 12"s in Table Of The Elements' ongoing series of limited single sided lps, each with 'Guitar' as the theme, ostensibly exploring the sonic possibilities of the instrument, one from long time aQ fave Fennez, another from San Augustin's David Daniell (both reviewed elsewhere on this list), and this one by a fella named Andrew Burnes, who until a few minutes ago, remained a total mystery to us. But apparently, he too is a member of San Augustin alongside Daniell, as well as playing in Haunted House with Loren Mazzacane Connors and performing with Thurston Moore and Ken Vandermark among others.
Here, Burnes, credited with just lap steel guitar, totally reinvents the instrument, subverting any idea of Appalachia or traditional steel string guitar music, instead creating a warm sidelong soundscape of muted buzz and slowly shimmering soft focus drift. The main component here is most definitely the drone, a whirring buzzy, shimmering metallic whir, that is by no means static, instead shifting colors and subtly changing shape, almost like holding your ear against an excited string as its overtones take on a life of their own. But in and around the buzz, little flecks of melody surface, almost like sparks being produced by the constant incessant vibrating steel, but these sparks are soft and sweet, like the surviving fragments of what was once some sort of Appalachia, drifting to the surface, and fluttering to the ground through Burnes' ever expanding cloud of warm metallic shimmer.
Super subtle and minimal and gorgeous. Drone music fanatics will definitely need to keep an eye on Burnes, and folks who like their country disembodied and blurred into warm fuzzy blissy drones, well then Telescope seems like it was custom created just for you!
Pressed on super thick, swirled milky green black and white vinyl. One sided, the other side with a beautiful etching courtesy of the mighty Savage Pencil, housed in a thick PVC sleeve, and again like most good things in life, or so it seems, VERY VERY LIMITED!
Once there was the Dwarves. Now there's Clockcleaner. Similarly abrasive and snotty and puerile and oft banned, but where the Dwarves spat out short bursts of pop punk doused in liquid acid and then dusted with coke, Clockcleaner are a much weirder and much more unpredictable entity. Less punk sonically maybe, but no less punk spiritually.
Here, CC offer up twangy guitars, crooned dramatic vocals, frantic drumming, and all sorts of cool space-y FX, not to mention some demented lyrics. Within the song proper, there's a long stretch of super tripped out weirdness, with effects swirling everywhere and even some horns. There's a definite Lubricated Goat / King Snake Roost vibe going on, which is never a bad thing.
The flipside is a cover, by Australian punks X (not to be confused with the more well known L.A. X (get it?), a track called "Hate City" which according to the sleeve, the band couldn't understand the lyrics so they just made their own. But the song suits them, with crunchy guitars, growled howled vocals that slip into a strangled whine and then back again, and another killer bunch of unexpected horns.
And it is Clockcleaner, so even though the record is called Skinheaded Lady, the cover features a grainy old photograph of a nun. These were also apparently tour only 7"s, we got the last copies direct from the band, so odds are these will be the last ones we ever see.
What's more powerful than a Leonard Cohen song? How about if it was sung by a 30 member acapella male choir? This awesomely-named group, Conspiracy of Beards, have been performing around the Bay Area for the last five years, wowing audiences with their exclusive repertoire of Leonard Cohen songs. The reverent intensity and tender drama that fills much of Cohen's songwriting is strangely fitting for choral interpretation. This is their debut release, an ep of five classic songs that nearly carries the same punch as their live shows. Though it's really hard to beat the experience of seeing this group live, where the feelings of spiritual uplift and vague impending doom are oddly tied together.
David Daniell was the guitarist for WAY underrated post rock slowcore drifters San Augustin, whose records were ultra understated and hushed expanses of soft focus guitar filigree, whispered melody, and barely there percussion, and his past solo records were super minimal as well, microsound explorations that basically required headphones to truly appreciate. So we were sort of expecting Daniell, for his entry in TOTE's Guitar series of one sided 12"s, to offer up a disc of near silence, coaxing the gentlest of sounds from his guitar, but instead, I-IV-V-I, named for the basic blues progression, is anything but. The opening track is a monstrous slab of tectonic buzz, layers of rumbling and crumbling distorted guitar, blurred into a Niblockian drift, warm and wavery, smeared and dreamy, but suitably tense and dramatic. Which is followed by a sort of looped Appalachia, steel string guitar, locked into a mantra like progression, the main figure locked into endless repetition, while in the background, a second (and maybe third) guitar offer up pretty little counterpoint and extra steel string buzz, texture and melody that seems to swirl beneath that hypnotic main riff.
"V" is all new age-y drift, another bit of soft dronemusic, laced with subtle layers of hiss and crackle, the melody a distant swell, which all gives way to a sweet melancholy guitar line that is processed into a layer of warm buzzing dreaminess, and finally the record finishes with a mournful, almost funereal sounding steel string buzzscape, that sounds almost like bluegrass, if it was stretched way out into long streaks of metallic shimmer, but Daniell drapes some playful major key melodies over the top, and the two, while seemingly at odds, mesh into something both haunting and mysterious, soft and weirdly pretty.
Pressed on super thick, swirled green, yellow and white vinyl. One sided, the other side features an etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a thick PVC sleeve, and as always, VERY LIMITED!
We've long been obsessed with a black metal band simply called The Stone, from Serbia, but we've never been able to get enough of their records to list, and we recently got turned on to a Stone side project called May Result, who we'll have to track down for the list one of these days. And this, the debut from Dead Shell Of Universe is yet another offshoot of The Stone, but these guys are doing something much more dissonant, and frankly a little French sounding. Which as far as we're concerned is most definitely a good thing. Avant post black metal or whatever you want to call it, spaced out spidery post rock guitar lines, furious buzzing dissonance, frenzied blast beats, and super twisted and complex arrangements. Hearing a little Deathspell, yep, and also a little Spektr and some Blut Aus Nord too, but with less of an industrial angle and more of a blackened twisted psychedelic vibe.
Three songs, the shortest one just about 9 minutes, the longest a little over 13, each one a multi part epic, that deftly shifts from grinding black fury to midtempo downtuned crunch, with vocals that go from wild banshee shriek to haunting Viking croon and back again in the midst of mere seconds. The riffing is super tight and definitely catchy. The first track does splinter off into woozy atonal near ambient interludes, the drums spitting out skittery almost tribal flurries, sometime slipping into some strange woozy doom, shot through with strange chords and slippery melodies, before erupting into another blast of blackened chaos.
The second track is even more complex, with some of the most amazing drumming in ages, furious and impossibly fast, skittery and off kilter one second pounding and precise the next, locked in tight with the riffs as they continuously stop and start, change tempos in a heart beat, explode into blasting buzz and dissipate into a spaced out sort of doomy lurch, finishing off with what can only be described as classic Satyricon pulled apart into a strange looped clanging chords, while beneath the drums never stop their relentless pound. The record finishes off with a strange sort of industrial dirgescape, all glitched out electronics submerged in strange metallic rhythms and shortwave buzz, distant downcast piano, soaring faux strings, climaxing with a squall of processed cymbal sizzle, chopped and looped voices, and wavery layered drones.
It's really only two proper songs, but they're so dense and so packed with parts and riffs and rhythms and changes and textures, that we're not sure we could handle any more than 2. But whenever they're ready we're happy to try. Now to track down The Stone...
A new somber rock trio has emerged from the Bay Area's shadowy fog featuring three SF metal vets! Though their other musical endeavors are decidedly metal leaning, Old Grandad's Max Barnett and Erik Moggridge along with Chewy Marzolo of Hammers Of Misfortune take Drift Of A Curse in a post rock direction on their debut album. Throughout the album's eight songs, the band smoothly weaves in and out of ominous overcast atmospheres and more fervent tempos. The Wrong Witness commences with "Blink" a number that creeps along at a brooding funereal pace, and things proceed along as such. Very heavy in tone and mood, but by the fourth song "Straits And Narrows" they get far more propulsive - almost poppy even! - with cool multi-part vocals and high sinewy guitars. This comparatively 'up' mood doesn't linger too long though. The very next song is the album's title track and with its subtle spacey effects and gentle gruff vocals it draws everything back down into a forbodingly solemn contemplation. If you dug the dark weathered beauty of Erik's other side project Aerial Ruin, definitely check this out!
Didn't last too long on Matador, but never fear, these headbanging heshers and their retroish riffage are soldiering on now for much more metal label The End. The four songs on this new ep are all fairly fast and furious, Early Man incorporating even more of a thrash aspect into their sound, which is no surprise since a) they already sounded a lot like early Metallica and b) thrash is back...
Their singer still has his Ozzyish moments (especially on the final cut "Suck Me Dry") but it's Metallica that's most in evidence in their music. We're also reminded of Defleshed (if they had guitar leads) and, especially with regard to the high pitched screams Early Man's singer pulls off on the title track, another band of "indie-metallers", Deadchild.
So, grab this and hear Early Man kill 'em all on the best ep we've heard lately to so convincingly warn of the danger of shark attack!!
Second of two releases this week from the mighty Aesthetic Death label, who we owe big time, for not only releasing records by Wijlen Wj, Stumm, Wreck Of The Hesperus, but for being the long standing and likely long suffering home of ultradoomlords Esoteric. Check out the Murkrat elsewhere on this list for a whole different take on doom, but this here, the first full length from French sludge four piece Eibon, is classic doom drenched sludge, or sludgey doom, or whatever you want to call it. Massive downtuned guitars chugging and grinding away, pounding pummeling caveman drumming, gurgled beast-from-below bellows, plenty of feedback, but this isn't really ultra slow, we're not talking Monarch or anything like that, this is sludge-y more like Eyehategod or Grief or Bongzilla, midtempo, the guitars almost groovy, lurching and lumbering, the sound incredibly heavy and blown out, thick and dense, the distortion so thick that when a note is held for more than a second or two it seems to crumble before your ears. The band locked into a killer groove that barring a short stretch of feedback drenched ambience, never wavers, and occasionally explodes into dense bursts of furious tribal drumming and some seriously druggy downerpsychdoom guitar freakouts.
The second track begins oddly enough with acoustic guitar, but the riff is soon swallowed up by the same riff, albeit soaked in fuzz and buzz and distortion, even slower and doomier that the opener, the main riff is a killer, the guitars tuned sooooooo loooow, they seem to warp and warble, occasionally fading out, leaving a sort of space rock minimal jam rife with weird effects and even some super simple melodic leads draped over the top. Could be vintage Monster Magnet actually during those parts, but the band soon launches back into the lurching dirge that opened the track, eventually finishing off in a noise drenched feedback smothered squall of blown out psychedelic high end ur-drone.
The first in Paradigms Recordings second act, the first being pretty impressive as long time readers of the aQ list can no doubt attest to. Here's a partial list of some of act one's notable releases: Hjarnidaudi, Amber Asylum, Throne Of Katarsis, The Angelic Process, Utlagr, Titan, Gnaw Their Tongues, Woburn House, Wraiths, Ondo, Plants and tons more. Not too shabby. So how to launch act 2? How about with a gloomy doomy black metal mystery from Germany, and their single song, 30+ minute full length debut. Indeed!
With nothing but a split to their name (released way back in 2002), Expyrosis offer up a sprawling multi part avant black epic, that will undoubtedly have aQ black metalheads frothing at the mouth. The guitars unwind haunting minor key melodies, woven into dense shimmering textures, the drums lock into a static blast, while over the top shards of melody drift and dissipate, before the track shifts, and the guitars explode, spreading out in thick sheets of warm buzz all tangled up with twisted mournful melodies, and underneath it all, voices moan and chant, giving the whole track a distinctly miserablist, almost gothic vibe, like Joy Division all revved up and wreathed in blackness. There's some serious math happening too, and plenty of whirling black ambience, and for every blast of black buzz, there's a creepy stretch of midtempo plod and soft focus smeared shoegaze guitar. The melodies soar majestically, the vocals are crooned and dramatic, almost spoken at times, the whole track locks into these woozy grooves, totally hypnotic and mesmerizing, occasionally splintering into something more jagged and off kilter, droney or drifty, meandering or blazing and chaotic, only to eventually be swept back up into a dizzying buzz drenched blur.
Strangely pretty and mysteriously heavy, yet still plenty buzzy and blackened. A pretty auspicious start to what looks to be a kick ass second act for Paradigms.
When we ordered this Japanese import, we were like, a split release between Japanese psychedelic stoner/doom rockers Eternal Elysium and San Francisco's own metalcore two-piece Black Cobra? Gotta get that! When it showed up, we were surprised to discover that the entire Black Cobra half had exactly the same tracks as those found on their recent full-length Feather And Stone, which we've already reviewed and raved about. Whoops. So... some of you already have that. However, if you want to get it again, you'll also get 23 minutes of Eternal Elysium material that only appears here. More likely, this is a good call for those who haven't yet picked up the Black Cobra album and also like (or think they might like) EE. Or simply for EE fans who don't mind getting the Black Cobra stuff as well (why would you?) as a bonus. Even at the import price, it's still 2 for the price of 2 (or 1.5 more like it) on one handy disc, not too shabby of a deal, really. So, let's say somethin' about the music for those ignorant of EE and/or BC:
Eternal Elysium always has us a little confused. Strange band. Sometimes they're straight up Sabbath-meets-grunge complete with vocals hinting at Alice In Chains or Soundgarden... and then there's the NWOBHM influences... and the groovy retro-sixties stuff... that's all here, plus of course random weirdness like the brief track "Golden Seaweed", with sped-up chipmunk voices. They try hard to make a stoner drug thing you wouldn't understand, but certainly something that fans of Boris, Solar Anus, and Church Of Misery should check into, to rock out to.
As to the BC half, here's what we said about Feathers And Stone before: Two man heavy riff-machine Black Cobra return with another pummeling release... Picking up right where Bestial left off, Feather And Stone shreds from the start. Brutally punishing circular riffs, heavy as all hell doomy moments, throat ripping screams, and incredibly hard hitting and precise drums. The fact that this massive sound comes from two fellas is pretty damn amazing. The album has all kinds of peaks and valleys. Amidst the constant time signature shifting, and brain-burning riff heavitude, there are a couple of beautifully dark intros and outros thrown in, giving the album a very balanced feeling. But it's mostly just crushingly heavy and ripping. If you can imagine a heavier, much more misanthropic Karp, that's kind of what they remind us of. Feather And Stone is a must for anybody needing a little taste of thrashing triumphant, sometimes doomy and dark, sometimes fast and techy, but always heavy and punk as fuck ROCK music... For fans of Cavity, Karp, Floor, Torche, and things that kill shit! (Note though that unlike the domestic edition of the BC album, there's no cd-rom live footage included.)
There's something about Finnish black metal that just kills us. Always. Every time. Horna obviously, but also Clandestine Blaze, Vordr, Ride For Revenge, Circle Of Ouroborus, Behexen, Satanic Warmaster, Jumalhamara... and as you can tell by that list, none of those bands really sound like any of the others, but still, they all somehow manage to sound distinctly Finnish.
However, within that expansive Finnish BM sound there is most definitely a distinct subset, one that is particularly grim and frosty and buzzy and blasting, furious and frenetic, which is where Exordium comes in.
Their s/t cd from a while back got short shrift here for some reason, but we did flip for their tracks on the Crushing The Holy Trinity comp. It may have been the first time we had heard them, and we described their sound thusly: "Super white hot hyperdistorted buzz guitar, lightning fast blast beats, killer riffs, the whole thing blown out and recorded so hot the speakers can barely handle it!" Which pretty much still applies, if anything the sound has just gotten more refined, tighter, more polished, but without losing any of their grimnity. Think maybe a little old Satyricon, a bit of early Immortal, some Beherit for sure, but all wound up and revved up and supercharged, even introducing a bit of Khold like groove here and there.
Pure buzzing blackened Northern darkness just the way we like it.
We've referenced these drugged and ugly New Orleans masters of sludge-core in tons of reviews, as they're one of the ur-bands that established the rituals practiced by anyone heavy and feedback laden, like Moss, Bunkur, Boris, Dot [.], Cavity, Corrupted, Khanate, Iron Monkey, Grief, Wellington, Acid Bath, Garadama, etc.
So we were so psyched to discover that EHG's first three discs were getting the deluxe reissue treatment. Elsewhere on this list we review In The Name Of Suffering, most people's fave EHG record, their third, Take As Needed For Pain, Andee's favorite, and this, Dopesick, their third, and part three of final EHG's godlike sludge trilogy. They would continue to make records, great records in fact, but the first three remain untouchable to this day.
In The Name Of Suffering was a hateful, feedback drenched trawl through a world of sludge, creeping and slithering, uncompromisingly brutal and crushingly heavy. Pretty much defining the sound of ALL sludge to come. With record number 2, Take As Needed For Pain, they added a little bit of that NOLA groove (you know, Down, Superjoint Ritual, Acid Bath, Crowbar, Soilent Green, Goatwhore, etc.) to their sound, making their plodding shrieking sludge a tiny bit more melodic and dare we say, catchy at moments. But take that with a grain of salt, melodic and catchy for a band like Eyehategod is still about a million times more caustic and corrosive than almost any other -heavy- band.
So with Dopesick, the groove factor is cranked up a little bit more, making Eyehategod here sound like the scariest, heaviest, druggiest, sludgiest stoner rock band EVER. But again, EHG in stoner rock mode, still outsludges them all, a groove flecked avalanche of slow motion ultradoom, screeching feedback, shrieking throat ripping vocals, blackhole downtuned guitars, all churning in a black sea of sludgemetal tar, lurching, and trudging and so fucking awesome!
Three bonus tracks: two alternate versions and one the appropriately titled "Dopesick Jam", an epic, lengthy freaked out psychedelic slab of glorious drugsludgedoom! Includes revised artwork and new liner notes from EHG frontman Mike Williams.
Latest in Table Of The Elements' series of 'Guitar' 12"s, and this is the one everyone has been waiting for, Christian Fennesz' June. Hot on the heels of Black Sea, which was a recent aQ Record Of The Week, comes this single sidelong drift of gnarled guitars and pixelated soundscapes. But unlike the blurred beauty of Black Sea, June is something else entirely, a creaking, clanging, chiming post industrial landscape of processed guitars, rendered here in the shape of distant pulsing buzz, in shards of jagged chords ringing out and dissipating into the ether, and deep groaning waves of blackened Wolf Eye-d rumble, imagine even a super softened Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, this is less blissed out shoegazey dreamscapery, and more carving dark sonic figures from deep shadow, ominous, sinister, haunting, all words that most definitely apply to past Fennesz recordings, but usually those elements were lurking beneath a shimmery sun dappled exterior, a soft patina of whirling muted buzz draped over a roiling black sea of sound below, but here, those sounds are allowed to creep to the fore, creating a seriously dystopian chunk of cinematic black ambience, the guitars unleashing a murky black fog, that while lovely cloaks all the other sounds in a mysterious blackened grit, but it is Fennesz after all, so the corrosive crumbling darkness does eventually get smoothed out, transformed into into a soft, rolling, burnished shimmer, deep tones dreamily undulating and floating weightless in an expanse of hushed thrum, but by then, the track is winding to a close. Dark stuff from Fennesz, and we like it. A lot!
Pressed on super thick, swirled milky brown vinyl. One sided, the other side with an awesome etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a thick PVC sleeve, and of course, as always, VERY LIMITED!
It's been ages since we've heard from Justin Broadrick as Final, his solo ambient project. Most of the last few years has been spent crafting blissed out shoegazey metalscapes with his outfit Jesu. Maybe you've heard of them. But before Jesu began, Broadrick spent his downtime away from Godflesh creating a series of fantastic solo records, overflowing with brooding dark ambience, creepy guitar based drones, and murky abstract minimalism.
It's been almost three years since the last Final record, a double cd on Neurot, and even though, since then, Broadrick has been heading in a way poppier direction with Jesu, this Final might be the heaviest and harshest yet.
Opener "Slow Air" sets the stage with an impossible heavy crush of super distorted bass rumbles below a tangle of high end skree and feedback. The whole track grinds and churns, peppered with bent guitar melodies, and mechanical percussion, building to a truly cacophonous finale. "Caved" follows suit with a corrosive slab of digital noise, that gets wound up into a wall of static airplane-taking-off rooooaaaar, of course laced with all sorts of glitch and buzz and shimmer.
track three, "Fearless Systems" is the first track to offer up any serious melody, and in doing so can't seem to help but to reference Jesu, sort of shimmery and washed out, a gauzy drift under grinding machinery and damaged tape buzz and hiss finishing off in a soft cloud of glimmering high end. The disc changes gears quite a bit after that, offering up some lurching looped grooves, some proto-industrial crunch, some whispered dark ambience smeared with distorted dubstep bass and distant wailing siren like tones, gorgeous slowcore crawls, peppered with shards of crash and clang, glistening digital drones shrouded in damaged space-y FX, buzzing almost minimal almost black metal that gives way to deep listening new age drift, finally finishing off with the track 'Dead Air", a warm blurred stretch of disembodied soft focus tones, muted buzz, lilting distorted melodies, all deftly woven into a haunting gauzy coda. So nice.
We had been holding off on reviewing this until someone here had actually watched the Flaming Lips movie, but it's been so busy around here we haven't had time. And since most Flaming Lips fans are gonna want this no matter what, and folks who have yet to discover the joys of the Lips, would most likely be better off starting a little further back in their catalog, we figured what the heck, let's review the record, the score to the movie, and give a brief synopsis of the movie, just so folks can actually buy it and check it out for themselves.
So the record, is not a NEW Flaming Lips record, in fact it's not even a proper Flaming Lips record, as mentioned above it's the score to the film of the same name, the one the band has been working on for close to a decade. So there's no big drums, none of Wayne Coyne's wavery vocalizing, no lush popscapes or BIG hooks, but the thing is, with all of those critical Lips elements removed, the band manage to still make Christmas On Mars sound like a Flaming Lips record, albeit a stripped down sort of ambient one.
But heck, remember Zaireeka? The 4 disc set that had the various tracks broken down and spread out over the various discs so to hear the complete songs you had to have 4 stereos and play them all simultaneously? Well, in some ways this almost sounds like ONE disc from Zaireeka, like the backgrounds for proper Lips pop songs. haunting disembodied voices, lush harps and zithers, faux strings, creepy orchestrations, strange sound effects, choirs, shimmering drones, but all shot through with a little bit of Christmas, be it a melody here, or an instrument there. Even removed from the visuals, this plays like some super avant, outsider Christmas record, which, it sort of is. So yeah, recommended for open minded fans of the band, and for folks into space-y (holiday) weirdness, or wonderfully creepy film scores like that Bernard Hermann Brave New World disc we listed awhile back.
But that's not all. Both the cd and the lp version (which has a different name for some reason) contain a dvd containing the film Christmas On Mars, a sort of updated but still WAY low budget Plan 9 From Outerspace, starring the bands and lots of their friends. What little we've seen looks really fun, and pretty silly, and definitely demented, again, movie buffs might not love it (movie buffs into kitsch and so-bad-they're-good movies might though) but fans will go nuts for it. The trailer is amazing, super stylized and very very strange, definitely has us wanting to see it bad. One of these days. But for now, check it out. Lips fans, this is essential obviously, the rest of you, depends on how you feel about the band and their music, or how you feel about a green alien with antennae who saves Christmas.
The lp, titled Once Beyond Hopelessness, not only contains the same music as the cd, and the movie on dvd, it also includes a BONUS 7" with exclusive music NOT on the cd!
We had been holding off on reviewing this until someone here had actually watched the Flaming Lips movie, but it's been so busy around here we haven't had time. And since most Flaming Lips fans are gonna want this no matter what, and folks who have yet to discover the joys of the Lips, would most likely be better off starting a little further back in their catalog, we figured what the heck, let's review the record, the score to the movie, and give a brief synopsis of the movie, just so folks can actually buy it and check it out for themselves.
So the record, is not a NEW Flaming Lips record, in fact it's not even a proper Flaming Lips record, as mentioned above it's the score to the film of the same name, the one the band has been working on for close to a decade. So there's no big drums, none of Wayne Coyne's wavery vocalizing, no lush popscapes or BIG hooks, but the thing is, with all of those critical Lips elements removed, the band manage to still make Christmas On Mars sound like a Flaming Lips record, albeit a stripped down sort of ambient one.
But heck, remember Zaireeka? The 4 disc set that had the various tracks broken down and spread out over the various discs so to hear the complete songs you had to have 4 stereos and play them all simultaneously? Well, in some ways this almost sounds like ONE disc from Zaireeka, like the backgrounds for proper Lips pop songs. haunting disembodied voices, lush harps and zithers, faux strings, creepy orchestrations, strange sound effects, choirs, shimmering drones, but all shot through with a little bit of Christmas, be it a melody here, or an instrument there. Even removed from the visuals, this plays like some super avant, outsider Christmas record, which, it sort of is. So yeah, recommended for open minded fans of the band, and for folks into space-y (holiday) weirdness, or wonderfully creepy film scores like that Bernard Hermann Brave New World disc we listed awhile back.
But that's not all. Both the cd and the lp version (which has a different name for some reason) contain a dvd containing the film Christmas On Mars, a sort of updated but still WAY low budget Plan 9 From Outerspace, starring the bands and lots of their friends. What little we've seen looks really fun, and pretty silly, and definitely demented, again, movie buffs might not love it (movie buffs into kitsch and so-bad-they're-good movies might though) but fans will go nuts for it. The trailer is amazing, super stylized and very very strange, definitely has us wanting to see it bad. One of these days. But for now, check it out. Lips fans, this is essential obviously, the rest of you, depends on how you feel about the band and their music, or how you feel about a green alien with antennae who saves Christmas.
The lp, titled Once Beyond Hopelessness, not only contains the same music as the cd, and the movie on dvd, it also includes a BONUS 7" with exclusive music NOT on the cd!
Here's this South African psych band's 1968 concept album debut, also reissued. Great title, eh? Compared to the Floydian space rock and Zeppish hard rock of their other, later two albums Astra and Galactic Vibes, this one is more '60s beat, definitely post-Peppers psych pop sounding, sometimes folky and balladic, at others more bombastically progged, with groovy organ and some fuzz guitar. It's also laced with random weirdness like sound FX, a vintage Pepsi radio advert, and spoken word intros to each track delivered in a sort of South African/Scottish brogue. Pretty neat.
These Midwestern doom kings unleash a limited edition, vinyl-only 4-song 12" ep, boasting a cool, creepy, splattery cover painting of the titular Ice Worm. The A-side consists of the track "Ice Worm" from their recent Conqueror opus, natch, plus a new song called "Something You Can Never Know", also an uber-heavy number solidly in GoS's tradition of old school, "Conan crushing doom" metal.
Another GoS tradition is doing worshipful covers of songs by bands that have influenced them, such as St. Vitus, Manilla Road and Samhain. So, the B-side here features two kick ass cover tunes reflecting GoS's deep respect for their slightly less underground metallic forefathers from back in the '80s - they do "Flight Of Icarus" by Iron Maiden and "Egypt (The Chains Are On)" by Dio!! Way cool.
LIMITED to 500 copies. We only have, like, 4.
We reviewed a record by a drone combo called Number None a while back. We didn't know too much about it or them, but what we did know was that the sound those guys produced was totally up our alley. Definitely drone based, but all over the map, wrapping various drones around all sorts of varied sonic elements, somehow creating a more cohesive whole than would seem possible.
So now we have the debut from this Chicago duo, called Golden Sores, which just so happens to feature one of the guys from Number None, and in the Golden Sores, the focus is much more defined, and the two craft an incredible collection of heavy buzzing dronemusic. Each track here a sprawling ever expanding black cloud of sound, from grinding low end rumbles, to effulgent sun dappled shimmer, some tracks take the murk of Sunn 0))) but spread it out and blur it into something more soothing and tranquil, others channel the urdrone rituals of Sunroof! through their own dirt smeared sonic filter. Some of the tracks slip into an almost late period Earth-like gospel Americana, but rendered in shades of grey and in smeared streaks of soft focus shimmer, and still others are swirling effects drenched expanses of outer space exploration.
The closing track gets downright nasty, adding a layer of crumbling distortion to a drone that sound like it was assembled from chanted voices, the two elements wrestling against one another until finally finding stasis and allowing a lilting melody to surface amidst the grind and buzz.
Totally gorgeous. If you like any of the above mentioned bands, or outfits like Tunnels, Svarte Greiner, Eternal Tapestry, Pussygutt, Half Makeshift, and other minimal cd-r dronelords, the Golden Sores will be your new favorite affliction.
Beautiful packaging. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each one hand numbered...
Originally released as a super limited cassette, which went out of print almost immediately. Then reissued as an almost as limited lp, which also disappeared in no time. So finally, this long sought after, constantly unavailable slab of gorgeous gauzy, folky dream drift, is available as an actual cd. Probably pretty limited too, but for now, we should have enough to last us a little while.
You probably already know just from the two artists if you need this or not. New work from two of the few women kicking ass in the mostly male 'noise rock' scene. Both huge AQ faves, both who utilize voice and effects, in addition to the usual string-ed instruments to weave dreamlike soundscapes and delicate cinematic ambience.
Both are in full effect here, each outfit offering up gauzy beauty and mysterious haunting murk, distant shimmery drones and abstract lo-fi song fragments. Gorgeous as always.
After two kick ass releases. The buzzing black metal of Dwellers Of The Twilight, and the epic doom of The Wounded Kings, comes two new records on the newly launched Eichenwald label, an offshoot of longtime faves Paradigms. We originally assumed that Eichenwald was meant to be more metal, but they seem to be displaying the same sort of sonic breadth as the mothership.
This is the debut (we think) from these German slowcore doom atmospherists, who weave a dreamlike minimal murk somewhere between Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore and Low or Seam. Three long tracks. Beginning with a muted bass heavy crawl, with spidery guitar lines and a distant shimmery drone, not unlike some mix of Codeine and Low, woozy and ethereal and dreamily fuzzy, until the song kicks into gear, and suddenly the sound is more glistening, with German vocals, crooned over skittery minimal drumming, and soft almost jazzy chords, the bass slippery and underwater sounding. Chiming harmonics drift in a hazy patina of warm reverb, the song sprawling and spreading out in slow motion, there's definitely a Necks vibe too, soporific and wearily lovely.
The second track, begins with another distant drone, and more skeletal guitar figures, and once again shifts into something moodier and jazzier, lush minor key chords, sizzling clouds of cymbal shimmer, ending with a long stretch of rainy day strings, and moaning low end swells, wrapped around a haunting guitar progression, still jazzy, but strangely cinematic.
The final track clock in at nearly 20 minutes, and begins with a creepy intro of layered drones and processed vocals, very atonal and a bit liturgical sounding, before woozy moody guitars roll in, rumbling bass, and then the drums explode and the sound becomes a super dramatic math rock a la Explosions In The Sky, but only briefly, while the rest of the song unfurls lethargically, the bass thick and muddy, the vocals spoken, the guitars offering up glistening shimmers of feedback, until the drums kick in again, and ups the drama and urgency. There's one more long-ish Bohren like crawl, before the song finishes off with a lovely and subtly epic Godspeed like flourish.
Definitely required listening for the moody dramatic post rock set: Bohren, Godspeed, Explosions, even older stuff like the aforementioned Seam, Codeine, Low, and to our ears, sometimes a bit like a softer lighter take on some of the more blissed out Jesu moments.
Emit were never really a proper black metal band, so much so that it often seemed quite curious that they were so embraced by that scene, when there sound was something much more abstract and ambient, ritualistic and distinctly not heavy, at least in the traditional sense. This UK horde trafficked in a sort of abstract ambient doom, there were riffs, to be certain, but they were not strung together into long buzzing progressions, instead they were banged out one at a time, often left to decay and sprawl into shimmering black ripples, and just as often there were no riffs at all, instead opting for some effects drenched dubbed out free blackness. Once in a while, the sounds and atmospheres would coalesce into something definitely black metal, but even then, the blast beats and buzzing riffs were stumbly and chaotic and doused in reverb and sent lurching though heaving seas of crunch and crumble, everything moaning and creaking and squealing and seeming to gradually implode. Emit were indeed one of a kind, and it's unclear what exactly caused them to hang it up, but a few of those Emitters went on to create this entity right here, now called Hammemit, a somewhat logical extension of Emit's more abstract ritualistic side, forgoing riffs and metal and buzz almost completely, opting instead for something much more primitive and minimal, haunting and spiritual.
Spires Over The Burial Womb unveils a mysterious black form of liturgical music, drawing heavily on traditional religious musics throughout the ages, wheezing church organs, chanted monklike vocals, choral voices, lots of echo and reverb as if these pieces were indeed performed in some sort of temple or church, some of the songs thick and swirling, dense and intense, others spare and spidery, with simple spidery melodies hovering in wide open expanses of shimmering reverb and deep cavernous echo. All of the sounds here are dark, haunting, creepy, mysterious, deep distant drones twist and turn like monstrous black shapes hidden in the shadows, the voices chant and invocate, offering up prayer perhaps to some other gods, the voices and the drones beneath inexorably interwoven. There is guitar, but it's often detuned, fractured, effected, smeared and blurred into another layer of creeping blackness. The most traditionally musical movements, sound a bit like Skepticism, but with all the distortion stripped away, the drums removed, slowed way down, and performed in some massive stone cathedral, every note slathered in natural reverb and dusty delay, allowed to drift ethereally until the next note emerges to follow along in it's ghostly black wake. While the rest of the tracks play out like ancient masses conducted by reanimated specters risen from the grave, primitive rituals performed in the black of night, in the dead of winter, in a church full of empty pews, with broken stained glass windows, and drifts of snow moving like a white sea across the cut stone floor, a swirling white abyss that swallows the black sounds drifting above.
A truly beautiful and haunting collection of blackened rites and rituals and mysterious nokturnal sonic ceremonies.
What a great way to end the year, two new songs from one of our favorite and most enigmatic songwriters of the present day, Ariel Pink. Now backed with a full band including members of Lilys and Beachwood Sparks.
While Ariel Pink is most often thought of for his lo-fi recordings and his on-the-verge-of-total-disaster live performances, the truth is that besides all his eccentricities and beyond all the hiss and mystique, Ariel Pink crafts some of the most endearing, catchy and brilliantly crafted songs EVER. Some folks try so hard to seem weird and unique, but with AP, his originality and singular musical vision is totally for real and ALL his own. He definitely fits perfectly in the great legacy of outsider pop luminaries having truly carved out his own place in the landscape of the underground music scene.
The last few times we've seen him live we've been blown away, by the music of course, but also by all the crazy ideas and weird sonic invention he manages to somehow cram into his songs and now finally we get to hear a couple of new tracks he's been performing live, recorded and damn do they sound great! The A side is one of the most smooth sounding AP jams yet, the band really works wonders creating some gorgeous alternate universe FM radio soft rock, complete with a totally tasteful sax solo (!) which would usually have us cringing but somehow it manages to totally work. And the B side is much more raw, dirgey and haunting. We keep listening to both songs over and over, and probably will until the new full length arrives, oh, and this 7" is way limited, only 500 copies, so it'll be gone all too soon and you know what that means....
Record number two from Howlin' Magic, and it's all about more howlin', more magic too if you're as enchanted by this brand of blown-out blooze as we are. Lo-fi and lovin' it. Is this the first non-Finnish release on the Lal Lal Lal label? Well Howlin' Magic fits right in with the usual Finnish weirdness even though they're just from just down Santa Cruz way, and by they we mean he, 'cause Howlin' Magic is a one man band. Imagine ol' Hasil Adkins playing stuff that sounds more like old Comets On Fire. Such insane all-instrumental shambolic stomp, with a mystic sci-fi hippieish vibe reflected in such song titles as "Voltron", "Quantum", and "The Universe Is Love". As with the first album from Howlin' Magic (not to be confused with Howlin' Rain, by the way!), this is for those who love psychedelic geetar excess, a la everything from Acid Mothers Temple to Michael Yonkers... freakin' recommended!
Kim Carlsson seems to getting soft on us, or at least more melodic. Gone, it seems, are the days of ultra grim buzzing abject suicidal blackness, the sort of sonic filth he spewed in the early days of his group Hypothermia. But we're not complaining, not at all. In fact, even though we've witnessed the sort of consternation this shift has caused in some of our troo black customers, the rest of us are really digging Carlsson's somewhat surprising new trajectory. Most notably in his group Lifelover, who have basically transformed their black metal into a haunting epic doom pop, albeit one rife with demented weirdness (see the review of the new Lifelover elsewhere on this list), but lately more and more in his group Hypothermia, who were never the heaviest band to begin with, but they did buzz and howl with the Burzumic best of them, but record after record, the sound of Hypothermia has grown more and more skeletal, more jangly even, resulting in a shift almost completely away from black metal, and ending up as a sort of lo fi dark jangle post rock, just guitars and drums, the recording very 4track sounding, the guitars mostly clean, very little distortion, the arrangements spare and sprawling, bordering on Krautrock at times.
Carlsson's latest two track chunk of Hypothermic post post black metal comes in the form of Kaffe & Blod (translated to: you guessed it, Coffee And Blood). The title track, takes up a whole side, and for the first half is a loping meandering lazy lope, the guitars spidery and brittle, the drums simple and stripped down, plenty of jangle, the two instruments in a woozy dance, looped into a mesmerizing mantra like progression, that while shifting subtly, manages to entrance in its gorgeous and seemingly unending repetition. The second half does actually offer up some distorted guitar, and just in contrast to the opener it does sound like black metal, but once the track settles in, the sound reveals itself once again to be more of a jangly blackened indie pop, which should definitely hit the spot for folks into Alcest and Amesoeurs and the like. Epic and softly buzz, a little mathy, dark and emotional, but like the first track, no vocals, and a definite hypnotic looped element, ending with a reverby slowcore outro that wouldn't sound out of place on one of our favorite nineties Touch And Go records (Seam anyone?). Really strangely gorgeous.
The flipside, "Dagg" is a 14 minute improvised track, a bit darker, slower, a bit dirgier, the same stripped down lo-fi sound quality, the drums way up in the mix, the guitars clean, but unfurling dark minor key chords, and minimal moody jangle, and even more than the A side, "Dagg" sounds straight out of some nineties mope rock classic. Moody and mournful and meandering, skeletal but still haunting and catchy and mysteriously lovely.
The true black metal hordes might was well give up it seems. As there doesn't seem to be much hope for a return to utter grimness, but in it's own way the music of Hypothermia is still grim and depressive and dark and a bit black, just cloaked in lope and jangle instead of buzz and blast, which suits us just fine.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES! Pressed on super thick vinyl with heavy printed inner sleeves and striking black and white jackets.
We sold so many of these when we made it Record Of The Week a while back, and everyone we know who bought a copy freaked out and declared it one of their new all time favorites, and for good reason it's an amazing, mind blowing, tripped out chunk of pure sonic inspiration. It's strange and beautiful and weirdly heavy, and proggy and tribal and it's funky as all get out. Well, we managed to get a final batch from the label, it's now sold out NEVER to be repressed, so if you missed out on this the first time around, you got yourself one more chance, don't blow it.
It's no longer out of the ordinary for a rock band to look beyond rock for inspiration. Or a jazz band, looking to expand their sound. It definitely makes sense as musicians are generally constantly striving to explore, to open their minds, their music, searching for unique instruments, new ideas, new sounds, even looking for something much more ineffable, something more spiritual. Psychedelic rock bands have typically looked East, The Beatles are probably the prime example of a rock band looking to India for musical AND spiritual inspiration. But on a much smaller scale, modern music develops and expands by incorporating new influences, the more 'exotic' the better. So for years, we could watch bands do just that, incorporate new instruments, sitars, tablas, whatever, alternate tunings, Eastern scales. Jazz musicians on the other hand, tended to look to Africa for inspiration, the tribal drumming, the vocal chants, all found their way onto tons of amazing records, amazing in part because of what they borrowed from the African music that was their genesis, as with many many discs by the Art Ensemble, Coltrane, Don Cherry, etc., etc.�
So if all this borrowing and influence is so commonplace, what's the big deal with this disc, a deluxe reissue of a rare 1972 LP entitled Uganda, by Japan's strangely named Akira Ishikawa & Count Buffalo? Well to begin with, imagine a Japanese jazz drummer in the early seventies, so obsessed with African music, that not only are his records already rife with African influences, but he eventually travels there, and proceeds to play with local musicians, collects indigenous instruments, and returns, driven to realize the record he knows he must make, Uganda, a record that manages to sound like African music, jazz and psychedelic rock, while sounding like nothing else. Ishikawa teamed up with fellow percussionist Larry Sunaga, a bassist and guitarist, and a saxophonist, who instead of playing sax, composed all four lengthy pieces here, the results are amazing. Dense, dizzying, abstract and tribal, fuzzy and tripped out, long stretches of solo hand drum percussion, furious acid fuzz freakouts (courtesy of guitarist Kimio Mizutani, from Love Live Life+1, People, and other freaky Japanese '70s psych units), chanting and handclaps, all woven into an expansive, sprawling divine chunk of out there Afro-fuzz-psych-jazz-rock divinity.
Take the first track "Animals and Dawn", nearly 12 minutes long, and over those 12 minutes, the song veers and drifts through about ten distinctly different sounds and styles, all held together by the relentless African drum jam that runs through all four tracks. Beginning with what sounds like some strange low end synth buzz, those drums kick in, intense and hyper rhythmic, amazingly recorded, so on headphones it sounds like drums are all around you. That buzz, pulses and undulates beneath the frenzied drumming, and this goes on for almost 3 minutes, which is when some wild super distorted acid psych guitar swoops in, jagged and freaked out, spitting out soaring wah wah drenched buzz, before the bass joins in and the drums coalesce into a more recognizable groove, and the band nails it, heavy, slithery proto-metal, churning and pounding, eventually locking into a super technical prog workout, and then dropping out completely, again leaving just the drums, which are soon joined by hand clapping, and chanted African style vocals. Finally, for the last four minutes or so, the band unwinds a groovy jazzy prog workout, still underpinned by those same rhythms, but now the bass carries the groove, letting the guitar go wild, wild psychedelic leads all tangled up in great strange shapes over the groovy rhythm below. Eventually, the song is swallowed up by effects, reverb, delay, echo, as if the band were playing on some huge elevator, as we sit on the surface, listening as the band slips further and further into darkness. Holy shit. If this were a $30 single, that track alone would make this essential for folks into psychrock, proto-metal, free jazz, avant African music or really anyone into strange and fantastical sounds.
The second track, "Asking For Love", once again begins with African drums, the two percussionists, offering up wild tangled beats for nearly two minutes, until in swoops a weird synthy buzz, which quickly transforms into a seriously Led Zep worthy riff, the drums a strange counterpoint to the distinctly rock and roll riffage, and the vocals soaring and shouting, but this kick ass riff fades out only after a minute, and we're back to more dense drumming, Mesmerizing and hypnotic, locking into incredible grooves, veering off into off kilter time signatures here and there, but always returning to that groove. This continues until about one minute from the end, when the bass and guitars explode in a buzzing psychedelic freakout, the drums mirroring the intensity of the axes, locked into an ever expanding supernova of blown out sound, until the furious explosive finish. Whew.
Track three (on the original, the start of side 2) "Battle", begins with some straight up jazz prog, angular and complex, the drums and guitars locked tight, the whole thing convoluted and intricate, stopping suddenly after 30 seconds, at which point an African thumb piano plucks out a delicate music box melody, while in the background, other strange instruments scrape and thump and honk, eventually blossoming into a full on Afro-jam, the drums pounding away, male and female vocals, call and response over the mesmeric beats below, but again, this only lasts a few minutes before switching gears and launching right back into the angular prog that opened the track. This happens a couple more times. Long stretches of abstract percussion, plenty of buzz, and rattle, melodies played out on mysterious African instruments, separated by brief blasts of that �buzzing tangled prog, which is exactly how the track finishes off.
The closer, "Pygmy" begins with a groovy walking bass line, a cowbell heavy almost-funk rhythm, eventually some acidic wah wah guitar, and suddenly we're in some serious seventies, Blaxploitation soundtrack style jazz funk, the bass a constant presence, that groove irresistible, the vocals soulful, the percussion still busy and intense, beneath the more static rhythm driving the songs. The guitar and vocals get all tangled up, the vocals more sort of scatting, the guitar offering up jagged shards of high end, or unfurling soaring psychrock leads, the bass and guitar locking into step right at the end, for one final super tight psychprog finish.
It almost seems ridiculous to describe each song in detail, as that's only part of the story. All four tracks work together, leading into one another, offering up bits from pervious songs, giving up little sonic hints as to what might come later, and it's not just the arrangements, it's the feel, the mood, the vibe, and while mere description might make some of the songs sound schizophrenic, flipping back and forth from part to part, some parts lasting only a few seconds, nothing could be further from the truth. The composition here is as deft as the performance, the arrangement is simultaneously free and abstract, yet, tight and composed. The songs breathe and open up, drift and wander, but never seem to lose their direction, and the grooves ever present, even if on the surface the band seem to be drifting though inner space.
Uganda is truly unique, freaky and far out for sure, but most definitely an essential chunk of jazzy, proggy African Japanese psych rock bliss, organic, expansive, epic, rhythmic, space-y, proggy, heavy and funky!! If you've got Julian Cope's Japrocksampler book, you'll find it in his Top 50 list of Japanese psych essentials, right above the debut from Flower Travellin' Band.
As with all Tiliqua releases, gorgeously packaged. This one is housed in a full color miniature box, printed front and back, with a Japanese style obi of course, and inside extensive liner notes in both Japanese and English, with tons of photos. And it is limited of course, not sure how limited, but judging from how quick past Tiliqua releases fly out of here, better to be safe than sorry. And this is actually the first in a new Tiliqua series called Distorted Oriental Sensory Perceptions 1969-1978 focusing on "Obscure Japanese Psychedelic rock artifacts." We can hardly wait to see what they dig up next... there's a lot of others on that Japrocksampler list we'd love to hear...
For a band that counts among its lineup, members of suicidal black metallers Hypothermia, satanic black blasters Ondskapt, weirdo blackened doomsters Dimhymn, and buzzing black and rollers IXXI,
Lifelover still manage to confound, somehow creating music at once the sum of all those parts, and at the same time a sound completely cracked, totally damaged, and gleefully bizarre, to the point of seemingly alienating all but the most broadminded of listeners. But if you're like us, and were crazy obsessed with Lifelover's last two discs, Pulver and Erotik, both confusional mixes of downtuned depressive black buzz, haunting epic minor key sadcore, and a plenty of sonic whatthefuck, then Konkurs should hit the spot big time. But even if you've yet to hear Lifelover before now, you still might fight yourself ensorcelled, as have many of the less metal minded folks around here. Lifelover occupy some strange space, not quite pop, not quite black metal. The guitars are distorted, but they don't quite buzz, the melodies are grim and depressive, but more gloomy and melancholic than hateful and harsh. Fans of groups like Alcest, Amesoeurs and especially Katatonia, at least those who aren't averse to some serious weirdness, could very well discover a whole new, darker and more demented side to their musical taste, courtesy of these freaked out Swedes.
Konkurs manages to expand on the sonic universe explored over the course of the two prior discs, while taking the sound even further, better production, more diverse and expansive instrumentation, better songs, and while bizarre, not nearly as schizophrenic, with a much better flow, like a proper album, as opposed to a collection of strange songs, but it's all still laced with plenty of gorgeously gloomy melodies, awesome metallic crunch, all sorts of tortured maniacal vocals, the tracks are peppered with skittery drum machines, bizarre feedbacked melodies, plaintive piano, swoonsome crooned vocals, all wrapped around gloriously miserable and epic minor key dirges, and super catchy twisted blackened doom pop.
From the very first moment, a strange echo drenched metallic clang, the band swoops in cloaked in a warm haze of black buzz, draped over a time keeping trash can lid cymbal, the vocals anguished and tortured, the guitars woven into soaring majestic melodies, while a piano plinks out its own sad melody right alongside. It really does sound like some Katatonia B-side, but filtered through some sort of cracked black lens. And from there, the record swoons and swirls, the tracks unfurling woozily, the second track has a killer main hook, a murky piano / fuzzy guitar harmony, blurred and smeared beneath simple motorik drumming, while the track after that borrows a little groove from Norwegian Nirvana worshipping black metallers Khold, but add a whole 'nother dimension of soft focus miserablism. Every track, no matter how normal, or how fucked up, is impossibly catchy, hooks galore, but also rife with elements that in any other band would stick out like a blackened and bloodied sore thumb. Whether it's some grinding muted chunk chunk chunk guitar, a recording of some polka-like accordion music, or a shimmery stretch of detuned piano, or perhaps some ominous spoken word, a bit of folky guitar strum, recordings of waves lapping on the shore, Sunn 0)))-like slow motion black guitar buzz, or lots of piano, almost always wreathed in tons of effects making it ethereal and shimmery, those elements seem to melt into the sounds around them, and after a few listens it's almost impossible to imagine the songs without them.
Not really heavy, not really all that black, but then that doesn't seem to be at all the point when it comes to Lifelover. Instead, the sounds here are a mysterious strain of outsider pop music, infused with elements of black metal and doom and slowcore and all sorts of other things, but those remain just elements, and become harder and harder to discern within the swirling jangly grinding blasting buzzing droney drifty twisted catchy and creepy whole that is Konkurs. Brilliant. And baffling. And beautiful. And absolutely recommended.
This Dodo Bird is charming from the very first song! The other four gentle folk pop tunes with their effusive acoustic guitar and soft-spoken male vocals are pretty darn lovely too. The gent behind all of them is Meric Long, a singer/songwriter from right here in SF (fyi: he's recently performed under the moniker Dodo Bird). This is his impressive debut ep, and it's super confident and composed. Very much in the easygoing, engaging tradition of Simon And Garfunkel, Astrud Gilberto, and definitely recommended for fans of Iron & Wine, Kings Of Convenience and Elliott Smith. Can't wait for more!
Dethklok is back!!! Our favorite animated purveyors of apocalyptic metal destruction have returned to face their demons both mighty and petty. In season two, they venture into the horrors of fashion, P.R., detox, the dating scene, state politics, as well as staging the largest public criminal execution of all time and of course botching it big time. This season they are faced with new mortal enemies from the Tribunal (one voiced by Malcolm McDowell), as well as an army of disfigured and damaged former fans called The Revengencers. Can Dethklok finally release their new record to save the World Economy, or will they be crippled by their childish infighting and developmentally challenged destructive behaviors? We never listed the first season, but we were all pretty much OBSESSED. The music is amazing, so good it's hard to believe they're not a real band, and the band members various accents are SO impossible to understand which almost makes it funnier and will probably have you turning on the subtitles, and the carnage, oh the carnage, so much blood...
Brutal!
The long awaited and first proper full length from this Polish black metal horde with the unpronounceable moniker (Mgla means 'fog' in Polish btw). We first heard Mgla on the incredible Crushing The Holy Trinity compilation, sharing sonic space with such black metal luminaries as Deathspell Omega, Clandestine Blaze, Exordium, Musta Surma, and Stabat Mater. At the time we had never heard Mgla, let alone heard OF them, but they definitely held their own, and then some. Soon after came their Presence ep, which continued to demonstrate Mgla's mastery of loping minor key buzz, layering the Burzumic murk with woozy melodies, and adding flurries of double kick blast beats, managing to invoke the old masters while somehow creating a black sound all their own.
So now comes Groza, a 4 part, 36 minute full length, and holy shit is it good. Everything we loved about Mgla before is present, but the songwriting has improved greatly (songwriting is not always a priority in black metal, not as much as stringing together kick ass riffs) and the sound is better to. An excellent production that manages to keep plenty of buzz, but makes the guitars burn bright, the drums don't get lost at all, especially the double kick which adds awesome percussive accents to long stretches of buzz. The opener alone is worth the price of admission. A ridiculously catchy main riff that manages to still sound grim and black. The drums a simple groove (some Khold-ish moments for sure), with brief flurries of double kick, but it's the second part/riff that truly transcends, after a gorgeous midtempo bridge/breakdown, the band launch into an incredible arpeggiated mid tempo groove, a minor key melody as melancholic as it is catchy, wrapped around the main riff, those double kick drums leaping to the fore, it's hard to explain, but it's just awesome, it has the same power as a timeless pop song, that riff is just so emotional and intense. Every time the song loops back around to THAT part, it's just perfect. Even when the est of the instruments explode into a blast, that main melody keeps swirling endlessly, and makes even the blast haunting and moving. There's also a awesome drum breakdown in the middle, before the band lurches back into dreary woozy minor key miserblist action. So awesome. It took about 10 listens before we could even review this record cuz we just kept listing to the first track over and over and over.
So imagine our surprise when the second track hit the very same spot, offering up a gorgeously mournful minor key melody, a killer groove, all wrapped around some incredible drumming, verging on mathrock, but never going quite that far, instead just pounding away, letting the riff transform the blackness into something special. And the last two movements follow suit. The more we listen to this, the more the Khold comparison seems apt. Only insomuch as there is a distinct pop element, and a groove, falling in that no man's land between blast and dirge, and the guitar parts don't just buzz, they swirl and whirl and shimmer, there are vocals too, of the growly demonic sort, but they bow before the riffs, and the beats, and unlike a lot of black metal, there is definitely some bass happening, adding to the thickness of the sound and that element of groove.
It's funny, we get so much to listen to every week, so not everything gets the amount of listening time it deserves, and when we set out to review this, actually, it was definitely going to be positive, but nothing too effusive and fawning, but on repeated listens, and on closer headphone listens, we're realizing this could very well be a contender for one of our favorite black metal records of the year....
Calm and chaos intermingle on this intriguing solo disc of quirky and uncategorizable improv-avant-pop from experimental Japanese bassist Nasuno Mitsuru (Altered States, Korekyojin, etc.). Aside from one bonus track, it's all stuff recorded about ten years ago, and previously unreleased, except for a couple cuts that were part of the massive 10cd "Improvised Music From Japan" box set, now out of print. He gets a bunch of help from his friends here, including Otomo Yoshihide and his turntables on a few of these pieces!
Already, the very first track isn't what we expected at all. (Not that we really knew what to expect.) It's over 12 minutes long, quite strange and lovely; a countryish song for slide guitar twang and mumbled indie-folk vocals, that's also utterly overrun with stuttery glitch, random noise and electronic skree, like some old-timey back porch blues broadcast on an ancient radio, garbled by jamming and interference. The "alien Appalachia" of Ignatz comes to mind, or Geoff Mullen's abstract banjo experiments, or John Fahey at (and beyond) his most avant-garde. We'd buy this just for that alone.
But of course there's more, other oddities abounding. The very next track features what sounds like an electronic approximation of a Jew's Harp, all zips and zaps and boings and burbles, accompanying some dramatic female vocals, both breathy and wailing. Whereas the third song is sung by a slowed-down, distorted, whispery male voice. Elsewhere, Nasuno explores clamorous rhythmic avenues on several more beat-heavy tracks. Folk/noise is returned to later in the disc, where traditional Japanese shamisen and singing is subverted by waves of electronic glitch and distortion.
All in all, another quite interestin' Doubtmusic disc, providing a glimpse into the fascinating, unique personal soundworlds of one of the many creative musicians on the Japanese scene whom we weren't nearly familiar enough with before.
Sometimes a record just comes at the perfect time. It was one of the first truly crisp and cold days we've experienced this winter here in San Francisco and Barbara Morgenstern's new record landed at aQ offering up songs that were just made to be heard during the colder months of the year. With a live band by her side and her great piano playing mixed with subtle electronics, this is an album filled with driving strength and such a strong and shining elegance. Kind of like if The Notwist and PJ Harvey or Marianne Faithfull got to collaborate, pop songs that are so smartly arranged but don't waste time trying to show you how smart they are. Morgenstern's not afraid to unleash her pop sensibility and does it with a piercing determination creating the kind of record that doesn't give in to easy emotions or one sided perspective. It's fitting that she alternates between English and German vocals. A record that you can listen to when you're sad or happy, determined or in a rut. It makes you want to put on your heaviest and sharpest looking pea coat and take to the icy streets watching your breath become clouds and taking in the simple pleasures, just soaking up your surroundings.
Morgenstern also covers Robert Wyatt's "Camouflage" and Wyatt sings with her as apparently he's a big fan of her work. They both display that rare elegance that's hard to find in modern music without it feeling too forced or saccharine. Morgenstern has come a long way from her techno beginnings and we're so excited to enjoy that evolution. While this is turning out to be one of our favorite records for the cold and rainy days that lie ahead we're pretty sure this will be a record we keep near us at all times, rain or shine.
First full length from this female Australian doom duo, three looooong tracks, and then 5 tracks from their demo tacked on to the end, good stuff too, and not the 'normal' doom we usually get around here either. Not sludgey crusty funeral ultra doom, or plodding lumbering blackened doom, no this is somewhere more along the lines of classic old school doom, but mixed with some more modern miserablism a la Skepticism, Esoteric (Murkrat labelmates), all mournful and melancholy, the guitars fuzzy and washed out, the drums plodding and skeletal, the riffs sometimes super Sabbathy, other times much more abstract, and then the vocals, dark and dramatic and a bit gothic, perfectly complimenting the sound in a way growls or screeches never really can. And then there's the organs, thick swells of keyboard that give the tracks a seriously ancient ominous vibe. The production is strange, almost like a Trollmann record, especially with the guitars and the keys, muddied and muted, heavy, but a sort of dreary windswept heaviness. The vocals sometimes shift into witchy rasps, but still spend most of their time hovering hypnotically above the churning riffs and doomic drumming.
The demo tracks are sonically not that far removed from the new tracks, if anything the vocals are a bit louder and more present, in fact it sounds like maybe both are singing more on the demo, the riffs are still murky, the drums buried in the mix, the riffs lugubrious and fuzz drenched, a sort of seventies British folk mixed with classic doom, which we shouldn't have to tell you is a wicked combination.
Fans of classic doom will definitely dig, as well as anyone who has been digging stuff like Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony and various other female fronted modern doom combos. And check their Metal-Archives page, frontwoman Mandy V.K.S. Cattleprod just might be our latest metal girl crush!
Now reissued again on vinyl, this former AQ Record Of The Week from back in 2004. This time, instead of Eclipse, it's on Kemado's vinyl-only imprint Mexican Summer (which is named after a Nadler song?), and they've added a bonus 7" of unreleased songs. It's limited to 1000 copies. Here's what we said about it before:
This is a dark and languorous trip through a sonic world of bleak skies, neverending sorrow, lost love, death and dying and all sorts of somber miserablism. The music itself is lush and rich, a warm rainy soundscape of muted finger picked guitars, augmented by occasional banjo, eukele, and autoharp, all lashed together into a modern melding of classic Appalachia, psych folk and classic songcraft.
But it's Nadler's voice that is the most mesmerizing part of Ballads Of The Dying, rich, velvety and throaty, completely captivating, and surprisingly reminiscent of Neko Case, but instead of the country wildcat Case, here's she's a rainsoaked and bedraggled innocent, seemingly beaten down but emanating an inner strength, a hidden power, that comes through in her powerful voice.
This is one of those records that seems pleasant enough on first listen, but as you dig deeper, the songs and stories unfold and you quickly find your self living and loving and crying and dying right along with Nadler and the characters she has populated her musical world with.
When it comes to full throttle driving and anthemic guitar driven rock, our hearts are so closely aligned with the San Diego scene of the 90's. You know, the one that spawned such awesome bands as Drive Like Jehu and Rocket From The Crypt. Rick Froberg, who was in Drive Like Jehu and then later in Hot Snakes is back with a brand new band, Obits. Their debut is this smokin' two song 7" that finds him picking up right where he left off with Hot Snakes. His delivery, guitar playing and vocals have this ability to just make us melt as his songs always sound so good on first listen but its the repeated listens where they really start to burn in our ears so so right.
When talking about this band Ocean, there's always an obvious temptation to liken their music to giant waves crashing upon the shore, which we shall indeed succumb to here. 'Cause of their name, which they share with another heavy band, The Ocean from Germany (this Ocean is the one from the coastal city of Portland, Maine) and 'cause of their massive, relentlessly cycling sound. Large rocks, over the aeons, would easily be turned to tiny grains of sand, by the action of Ocean. Even within the limit of the running time of a compact disc, Ocean surely hints at such power. Over the course of these two loooooong tracks here (35:50 and 23:04), Ocean's repetitive riffs and percussive detonations surge and crest, washing in and out with regularity and ponderous force, slowwwww and steady, building up almost imperceptibly. Beautiful to our ears, or to those of anyone else equally as enamored by crushing, moody, majestic sludge-metal!
The anguished vocals, guttural gasps, oftimes like gasses escaping from a subterranean crypt, or (a more appropriate analogy) the final cries of drowning men from a sinking ship intermingled with the bellowings of some leviathan of the depths, put us in mind of the ultra-doooom of Khanate, as do the varied levels of carefully sculpted feedback and distortion. There is some guest singing (in Japanese, we believe) from Yoshiko Ohara of fellow doombringers Bloody Panda on the first track, but even her cleanly-sung lamentation eventually gives way to "vokill" style throat-abuse.
During much of her turn at the mic, as well as at other junctures on this disc, (the) Ocean calms and quiets, yet the listener remains adrift at sea. Doomed to drown, sinking down into into the stillness of the deeps, an undersea abyss where of course the darkness and pressure make this even heavier! Not so good for actual shipwreck victims, but metaphorically excellent for those of us into this sort of music - a combination of dirgey funereal doom and loud/soft post rock prettiness, truly elegant -and- extreme. If you liked Ocean's earlier effort for Important (Here Where Nothing Grows), and/or the likes of Bloody Panda, Conifer, Lesbian, Khanate, Thou, Pelican, etc., this is probably for you! And we must also mention the packaging; a white digipack, with text and engraving-style artwork in metallic silver ink. Very classy-looking.
The sticker on the shrink-wrap for this Max Ochs cd says it all: Cousin of Phil Ochs. Poet. Schoolmate of John Fahey and Robbie Basho. Friend of Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James. Social Activist. Takoma and Fonotone Guitarist. Composer of "Imaginational Anthem". That last one seems to bear the most weight as it exemplifies Ochs influence on the Tompkins Square label as they have named three volumes of solo guitar anthologies after his song. But he is also a kind of poster boy for the label that has spent much of the last few years digging through the cracks of the solo guitar genre to find those who should have been more renowned. Hopefully this collection, most of it newly recorded, will shine a brighter light on this semi-obscure figure. Inspired by deep eastern ragas and dense open blues forms, Ochs was more of a writer and performer than a studio musician, so he doesn't have as deep a discography as his contemporaries, John Fahey and Robbie Basho. But the recordings here are stellar and on a par with the best of the genre. There are also a few examples of his poetry, including one about his cousin, folksinger Phil Ochs, who succumbed to drugs and suicide way too young, adding a tinge of heartbreak to this amazing collection.
Nowadays the words Jewelled Antler are so widely known in underground outrock circles, that all we have to do really is just mention the name and y'all know we're talking about some seriously awesome sprawling nature-y goodness. It's true, the Jewelled Antler crew have been high on the sound worship, rural psychedelic trip for over a decade, with no signs of coming down. Between the recent Porter box set and several other discs released earlier this year on Nature Strip and the Helen Scarsdale Agency, Loren Chasse has established himself as a sort of mystical elder in the Jeweled Antler community. Recording/performing with Thuja, Kyrgyz, and The Blithe Sons (to name a few) and working as a SF public school teacher, its amazing Chasse ever has time to sleep, let alone record all of these effing remarkable collections of minimal innerspatial sound!
Rocks Will Open is Chasse's latest, brought to us by Digitalis in an ultra limited arts and crafts edition of 100!! Yes we said limited! While the disc is being released in a larger pressing of 500, the first 100 copies (which we got 30 of!) come with a mind blowing exclusive tape called Morphological Echo! Yes! Basically a whole extra record!!
Recorded between 2005 and 2007, Rocks Will Open is a sonic escape across coastal worlds, through secret doorways beneath tree stumps and into iridescent waves of shimmering prismatic dust. And not your average list of instruments in the liner notes either: dulcimer, gravel, sand, stones, and khaen (a Southeast Asian mouth harp!) to name a few! The opening / title track starts things off with creeping dulcimer melodies, methodical plucks and strums over earthen textures, sonic topsoil moving and shifting on its own. "Trail of Hornfel", track two, is a dark drift, a choir of possessed singing bowls howling from the bowels of a partially submerged seaside cavern. Chasse has has perfected an organically rich sound all his own, recordings that sound more like he has somehow cast spells on each instrument, conjuring sounds and textures through divination and sorcery, channeling the pulse of the natural world. "The Paper Raft" is deep and somber, the earth splits open and melancholic passages of deep bowed tones swell dramatically and narrate the fall of Western civilization, a rarely visited shadowy realm for Chasse. But actually, all of Rocks Will Open has a mysterious haunting unsettling beauty sewn into its fabric, illiciting the kinds of feeling evoked by leafless trees in snow, or a blazing campfire flickering in a suffocatingly black nightscape, or like being quietly captivated by a towering tsunami seconds before it swallows you whole. A contemplative experience that unfolds and blooms with every listen as sounds hidden in the woodwork reveal themselves, this could easily be our favorite solo record from Chasse. Rocks Will Open is totally necessary for fans of Peter Wright, Tim Hecker, Gregg Kowolsky and anything Jewelled Antler (obviously). So if you know what's good for you, do not miss out on this super incredible release AND the special limited edition cassette that comes along with it!! Once we run out of the limited version with the tape, which will most likely be sooner rather than later, folks who order Rocks Will Open will then get the cheaper tape-less cd version.
As of the writing of this review, it's the day after Christmas, and as is befitting such a holiday, this list is HEAVY on the black metal, our little way of helping those black hearted souls and accursed spirits out there celebrate in their own demonic way. But what that also means, is we were down near metalled out. There's only so many ways you can describe something that is black and buzzing and grim and brutal and frosty and kvlt....
But the second we threw this one, none of that mattered. This was the only black metal there was, virtually erasing all that came before, a sound so powerful and unique and YES, black and buzzing, that we were immediately reinvigorated and filled with sinister black glee. If glee can in fact be either sinister or black.
Since we first reviewed Old Wainds a while back, people have been obsessed, and as we mentioned in the other reviews, OW are one of the few bands that virtually ALL other black metal bands seem to worship. Whatever it is abut these mysterious Russians, they've tapped into something magical that no one can seem to get enough of. For a brief period we had all the Old Wainds records, but gradually it become harder and harder to get them back in stock. Until now. Finally a US label has taken up the mantle and embarked on a comprehensive OW reissue program, elsewhere on this list you'll find the mind blowing Scalding Coldness, reissued, and WAY cheaper, and almost more exciting than that, this record right here, their first full length from back in 2001, Religion Of Spiritual Violence, was the only one we had never been able to get. So for a lot of you, this will be the first time you'll get a chance to complete (or begin!) your Old Wainds collection, and needless to say for fans of all things buzzing and black, this is IT.
It's really hard to put into words exactly what makes Old Wainds different than the hordes of other BM outfits, they definitely have an old school Darkthrone vibe, sort of punky, but they're just as likely to explode into a burst of impossibly fast blasting blackness a la Immortal or something. The vocals are super strange, less a demonic howl and more a sort of evil croak, and the lyrics are in Russian which makes it even cooler. But the music, while no doubt indebted to other BM bands, manages to sound like nothing else. Swirling chaotic riffing, strange mathy drumming, the cymbals super loud in the mix for some reason, as are the vocals, almost like the buzzing guitars are just a sheet of fuzzy blackness, a backdrop for the satanic invective and the barrage of crashing cymbals.
This is indeed grim and harsh stuff, whether churning along in a midtempo Burzumic pound or spraying black fury within a flailing blast, the sound is just so NOT normal, on the surface it sounds like 'black metal', but it's twisted, cracked, infused with a harrowing anger, with a utterly bleak worldview, with a unfailing misanthropy, which leaches into the sounds, and beyond all that, as with any black metal that demands repeated listening, there's tons of stuff going on, including a ton of hooks, sure they're bent and blackened and buried beneath layers of grit and grim and buzz, but they seep out, some of these riffs are as catchy as any pop song.
Just listen to the sound samples, read the other reviews for more about the band, their records, their sound, but odds are, like us, you'll be forever in thrall to the grim black majesty of Old Wainds, a convert to their Religion Of Spiritual Violence.
We love Old Wainds. So does Leviathan, Xasthur, Crebain, Draugar, Nachtmystium, and every other black metalhead we know. And as we mentioned before, there is really no better way to discover amazing bands than by discovering who your favorite bands' favorite bands are. Knowing that, Russia's Old Wainds are truly the black metal elite. Very few bands with such limited distribution, no official releases in the United States, and records that end up on eBay more than in shops have managed to make as huge an impression as these guys. And rightfully so. This is absolutely some of the most glorious buzzing blackness we have ever heard. And finally, we've managed to track down three of the four proper Old Wainds releases!! We got a whole bunch but we have a feeling they won't last long, and we're not sure how long it will take before we can get more (or even if we'll be able to at all). Before now we had been been on a never ending quest to track down every single recorded second of music these guys have spewed forth. So much so that one aQuarius employee who shall remain nameless (ahem...Andee) spent an embarassing sum on one of these discs on eBay!! But for now, you are spared that same fate. We have a bunch of copies of Old Wainds' second full length Where The Snows Are Never Gone, the split with fellow countrymen Nav, and this, their most recent release, Scalding Coldness! Which we also managed to get on vinyl!!!
So what is it about Old Wainds that has the grim hordes all in a tizzy? And why is Scalding Coldness one of the best black metal records of all time? Hard to explain exactly. If you were standing right here, we'd just play it for you. And it would only be a matter of seconds before you understood. And you can go ahead and listen to the sound samples, it should have the same effect, but we might as well try to put into words what it is that's so amazing about these guys and this disc.
With any metal, it's all about the riffs, black metal maybe moreso, because with black metal, it's pretty much entirely about the riff, no matter how buzzy the sound is, how evil and atmospheric the music is, without killer riffs you are NOTHING. Needless to say, Old Wainds whip up some of the catchiest buzziest riffs around. Swirling, snarling, dense and slightly off kilter, definitely in the great Norwegian tradition but with their own unique twist. Crunchy and insectoid, with strange little trills and unlikely chugs, haunting arpeggiated chords... The vocals too, guttural and growly, but not really shrieked or grunted, it's about as close to actual singing as black metal vocals can get. Still harsh and hateful, but more sort of gruff and raspy. And then the songs, epic and majestic, almost cinematic at points, but at the same time grim and frosty, buzzing dronescapes of bleak blackness, infused with a surprising amount of melody. And then there's the weird stuff, the chantlike vocals, the guitar leads that surface here and there, the strange pulsing ambient interludes, the weird breakdowns, ultra dramatic intros with bizarre drumming... but none of those things define the band, they are just part and parcel of Old Wainds' twisted black universe. The perfect blend of Xasthur, Immortal, Leviathan and Darkthrone. Sort of. Take your favorite bits from each of those bands and then smear in some desolate Russian winters, and twist it all up into some black shape that while sort of familiar is unlike anything you've ever heard before. And you'll be getting close.
Absolutely essential.
In the AQ black metal hall of the elite, atop a mountain wreathed in fire, beneath a sky as black as pitch sit the black metal elite, Satyricon, Emperor, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal and the rest, but it's looking like someone just might have to scoot over and make room for Old Wainds at the table...
One of our favorite cuts from the recent African Scream Contest compilation was from the Benin based Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Contonou, a stellar Afro-funk collective that in various line-ups recorded over 500 tracks between 1970-1985. This is part one of a planned two volume release, this one focusing on a prolific string of singles released on various private labels between 1972-1975. As the story goes, the band were signed to a major African label and recorded at a high quality studio (which will be the focus of the second volume), but while the label head was away on business, the band would take matters into their own hands, recording various singles for small independent labels, often at people's homes with only one microphone for the singer and the band in a close semi-circle behind him. The sound quality with such limitations is actually quite amazing and really displays the group's tight -knit musicianship. Like Fela Kuti's legendary band, the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou deal in heavy James Brown inspired Afro-funk, but more centered on guitars and organ than the horn section. This is one of the best and most consistent anthologies of West African music from a single group we've seen in these parts all year! Highest recommendation!
