What might you expect from a band made up of one part Everlovely Lightningheart and one part These Arms Are Snakes? What if we told you some of the guys in Isis, Helms Alee and a few of the other These Arms Are Snakes fellas helped out? You still probably wouldn't imagine the sound of Mamiffer, which does share some elements with those bands, but is definitely its own unique entity.
Martial snares, grinding drones, melancholy piano, a strange sort of murky chamber ensemble, like a fucked up malevolent Rachels, that slips smoothly into some jazzy almost post rock. Moody and moving and dramatic and pretty dang cool. And that's just the first track. The rest of the tracks are all over the place, but held together by the everpresent piano, from glitchy buzzing dronemusic that swells to an incendiary Jesu / Nadja-like roar, piano laced folky slowcore, all moaning cellos, and cinematic piano, again underpinned by fuzzy buzzing drones, Godspeed style slow burn epics, Necks like slow jazz shimmer wrapped around a glowing black rumble, wrapped in a hazy shimmer, Fahey-esque Appalachian guitar strum that gradually slips into something much more distorted and heavy, laced with ethereal female vocals, and a distant whirring hiss, all woven into one epic and moving cinematic songsuite.
While this might not hit the spot for most Isis / These Arms Are Snakes / Helms Alee fans, it will almost for sure please fans of all things moody dramatic post rock, Rachels, Godspeed, Explosions, Mono, Magyar Posse and the like...
During a brief three years in the early '80s, Y Records enjoyed a roster of amazingly funky, post-punk groups that included The Pop Group, The Slits, Shriekback, Pigbag, and bafflingly enough Diamanda Galas (not taking on the typical guise of the label, mind you). Maximum Joy was another outstanding entry from Y Records, having been formed by Tony Wrafter after the dissolution of the agit-pop punk ensemble Glaxo Babies. Wrafter recruited vocalist Janine Rainforth, another Glaxo Baby in Charlie Llewellin, and the Pop Group's John Waddington. After a couple of singles, the band released Station MXJY under the production thumb of Adrian Sherwood. His dub inflected engineering worked perfectly to render Maximum Joy's jaunty punk-funk tunes as a sunny doppleganger of The Pop Group. Amidst Sherwood's tape echo and delay workouts, the band adventurously march through a taut rhythm section that tightropes between a militant funk and a doleful rocksteady swagger, while chicken scratch guitars map out the simple song structures and saxophone solos splatter across the stereo. It's a very good thing that this record has been reissued (complete with four excellent bonus tracks), as Maximum Joy were clearly a talented bunch who might have been forgotten otherwise. It's just unfortunate that Station MXJY is only available as an expensive Japanese import. Ouch!
We only have 5 or 6 of these which is probably enough, cuz boy is this a weird one. We've had these for a really long time, so can't remember the story about who this guy is or what else he's done, but this record, well, it starts out with SEVENTY FIVE super short vocal experiments, as in 6 seconds to 29 seconds, running the gamut from animal like growls, wild hysterical shrieks, disembodied humming, percussive experiments, heavily effected beat box, sort of throat singing, growly death metal grunts, operatic howling, and pretty much all manner of fucked up vocalizations. Think an audio test record featuring nothing but Eye from the Boredoms doing vocal exercises. Fucked up, weird, a novelty, totally cracked and demented. Definitely worth it to disrupt your next party or to torture your downstairs neighbors, but hold on, there's a nearly hour long final track, also seemingly constructed from vocals (?) and it's gorgeous, an extended soundscape of layered hum, of shimmering drones, distant click and skitter, deep bell like tones, murky floorcore, looped stuttering rumbles, moaning and groaning warbles, all drifting beneath a thick fuzzy haze. Almost sounds like it could be the first 75 fragments combined into one thick swirling morass.
Definitely cool And quite weird. We only have a tiny handful, so act fast if you want one of these...
We found a handful of titles, maybe only 5 or 6 of each, from Aussie label Diagnosis� Don't! We've had these for ages, and odds are these are long gone as they were pretty limited to begin with, but for a few of you, here's your chance to grab one (or all) of these super limited 3" cd-r's.
Moonmilk are another Australian combo, who specialize in lo-fi experimental ambience, utilizing keyboards, loops, effects, guitars, microphones, tapes, melodica and other noise making devices, this duo whip up some seriously dense blur, a warm whirring landscape of wheezing melodies, throbbing low end, swirling hiss, gorgeous languorous layered drones, random percussion, lo-fi but lush, minimal but expansive, definitely some dreamdrone goodness for the freedrone cd-r set. Two tracks, 12 minutes. Definitely like to hear more from these two....
Packaged in thick cardstock mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. And again, we only have a VERY FEW of these....
Necrolucas and the band he plays drums in, Mord, are back!! Dude not only boasts one of our favorite black metal monikers but his band smokes as well. If you've heard Mord's debut disc Christendom Perished, released on Southern Lord a few years ago, you know what to expect from these none-more-necro Norwegian speed demons. Fast, faster, and fasterer! Furious too. With occasional headbanging breakdowns to catch a breath. Necrosodomic Abyss is a thrill ride propelled by Necrolucas's blasting blizzard of drumbeats, but Mord founder guitarist/vocalist Nordra is crucial too, unleashing an abundance of remarkably rockin' riffs (remarkable for something this grim and raw, that is) as well as a suitably guttural growl. (The band here is rounded out by session bassist named Necrosodom, by the way.) To reference a couple other Aquarius faves, imagine if you will a cross between 1349 and Khold. This disc's eight tracks are simply titled "Opus I" through "Opus VIII" and are of course different from the identically titled Opuses (Opi) found on their previous album. Doesn't that get confusing for Mord when they make a set list? Maybe they don't play live anyway, many black metal bands don't... which would be a shame in this case, if a sweaty crowd never ever moshed to Mord! Listening at home, maybe you'll get some moshing in too.
This futuristic-psychedelic Italian band from the Malleus/Ufomammut outer space orbit has come back to visit Earth again, blasting and baffling our senses with the intense radiation of the three long tracks that comprise this 40 minute disc/trip. As with their previous Monstro, the trio of Lin, Lan and Len again indulge in heavy, throbbing, occasionally spaced-out instrumentals with a rhythmic, industrial edge - something like Godflesh gone postrock amok. Or imagine the soundtrack to an alien autopsy that mixed up the internal organs of Lightning Bolt, Shellac, and Ufomammut. Sick.
MoRkObOt's guitars (both basses!) are distorted and drilling, laced with noise and FX, that gives way to moody electronic expanses, brushed with restrained, jazzy drumming. Indeed, we said "occasionally spaced-out" but maybe it's the other way around, the bulk the album actually consisting of near-ambient void-drone interrupted by the frantic panic of urgent, abrupt riffage and rigid clangorous rhythms. While this idiosyncratic band doesn't sound like most of the "doom" music we sell, believe us it's plenty ominous and intense, the doom it portends (a catastrophic asteroid impact? our sun going nova? the eventual heat-death of the universe?) not in doubt.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Where to even start... HAWKWIND. The mighty lords of drugged out space rock, without whom, most of the bands we love might not even exist. These four Hawkwind records: Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, In Search Of Space, and Space Ritual, are pretty much all anyone needs to know about space rock. Or whatever it is that Hawkwind do, long sprawling jams, extended psychedelic workouts, heavy and trippy, totally drugged out and divine, while at the same time, surprisingly catchy. But yeah, aQ folks probably already know how much we love Hawkwind.
So if we were to pick six bands to cover classic Hawkwind tunes, we might not have picked these six, but then again, we very well might have: Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Tempo And The Cosmic Inferno, White Hills, Kinski, Bardo Pond. Holy hell! If this were just a comp with those bands, we'd be all over it, but the fact that they're covering Hawkwind seems like it was made just for the aQ faithful, and who knows, maybe it was. Spread out over three 7"s, we almost didn't list these separately, but as a set, 'cause to our minds, who the heck would only want one or two of these? But you never know, so for those of you who didn't already freak out and toss all three into your cart, here's a brief bit about each specific 7":
The first of the three, subtitled "Motorheads", features two aQ favorites (as do they all), Mudhoney and Mugstar. Mudhoney tackle "Urban Guerilla" and totally make it their own, so much so, that minus a little chunk of extended droney space rocking in the middle, those not well versed in Hawkwind would certainly be forgiven for thinking it was a Mudhoney original. Mugstar on the other hand are a DEAD ringer for Hawkwind, their sound murky and muddy, squalls of psych guitar, clouds of swirling spaced out FX, droned out jams, all tangled up and slowly unwinding into a long sprawling space rock jamscape. Hawkwind would be proud.
The packaging is brilliant, perfectly tripped out psychedelic acid flashback, with naked lady, geometric design, cribbed from the original Hawkwind artwork (or at the very least, an incredible simulation), the sleeves are printed complete with shelf wear and corner creases (so don't complain, they're meant to look like they've been on your shelf for decades), each one SUPER LIMITED, and already sold out at the label, we have a bunch, but these will be the only copies we'll ever have!!
While he certainly sounds a bit more world weary with a warble of uncertainty in his voice in the opening track (and looks a bit more scruffily bearded in the inside photo), have no fear this is the A.C. Newman we all know and love! We have to admit that the new solo album from the New Pornographers' lord of the manor caught us a bit by surprise. We simply didn't expect it just yet! Hmmm, maybe the batteries in our trusty NP radar are on the fritz!
Anyhoo, we welcome Get Guilty gleefully with open arms and ears! As with his previous solo outing 2004's The Slow Wonder, the energy is definitely less exuberant and the mood far mellower than that of his main band, but the pop songs are as stellar as ever. He can at once nail both the heartswellingly grand and the sensitive smart guy introspective with the sweep of his songwriting quill. Not surprisingly after only a couple of listens, many of Newman's crafty pop hooks have embedded themselves solidly in our craniums. The sweet wistful mandolin lace air of "The Heartbreak Rides" is a definite standout, as is "Like A Hit Man, Like A Dancer" which with its similar instrumentation, female backing vocals and peppery tone could easily be seen as an epilogue or afterthought (not an outtake, mind you!) to the NPs' Challengers album... actually many of the other songs can too! Soooo, needless to say, "Very recommended if you like...."? You know it! Really, the only less that splendid thing about this release just might be the cd's art design and digipak packaging which sort made us think "local band demo". 'Tis a minor distraction though. Pssst, his backing band this time features Mates Of State's Kori and Jason which honeys up the musical confection quotient even more!
Yay! It's pretty cool that Norway's Smalltown Supersound has put this out, a disc collecting two previously released (in Japan only) eps by this Japanese all-girl avant-rock unit. We'd found out about this band a while back, and had wanted to stock their stuff, but sometimes importing cds from Japan is a daunting task. So our procrastination paid off, as now we have this handy disc, easily available. (It's also pretty cool that the Heartworm Press label has also just issued this on vinyl!) So what's the deal with this band? A mostly instrumental guitar/bass/drums trio who are psychedelically skronky, generating massive walls of distortion underpinned by propulsive no-waveisms. They're not a Japanese "noise" band like Merzbow or Hijokaidan, but certainly get plenty noisy. We could compare 'em at times to the likes of Afrirampo, Lightning Bolt, Melt Banana, Deerhoof, (early) Blonde Redhead... actually Nisennenmodai makes the reviewer's task a bit easier by naming several of the tracks of the Neji ep (2004) which begins this disc after some of their musical heroes, which to a degree they emulate: "Pop Group", "This Heat", "Sonic Youth". The "This Heat" track definitely has the nervous tension and percussive percolations we love about that band, whereas "Pop Group" is ultra-angular and extra-noisy...
The Tori ep (2005) that occupies the second half of this collection continues those themes - in fact, they do one of Neji's songs again, the densely rhythmic "Ikkkyokume", probably a signature track for the band as it so well represents their trance-inducing intensity, love of volume and minimalist song structure. Tori's first track "Kyuukohan" is tightly wound, repetitive number full of crashing cymbals, chiming guitar, and bass throb... building, building, building relentlessly to a massive climax. The next song, "Kyaaaaaa", incorporates yelping vocal shrieks and even more noisy feedback guitar. And so it goes, getting ever noisier, more throbbingly repetitive, a distorted, enthralling onslaught of explosive splatter/scatter rock indeed! We'd love to see 'em live someday, apparently there's crazy costumes and stuff, but that seems hardly necessary given the sheer energy of their music.
The limited double LP version is a handsome gatefold, on white vinyl. It's already sold out at the label, apparently we got their very last copies... act fast!
We've seen some pretty elaborate and unique packaging come through the store over the years, but this delicate and exquisitely hand made affair by local songstress Leyna Noel is really in a league of its own. She hand made each sleeve which comes in antique linen that she sewed individually and stitched shut, inside the lyrics and liner notes are printed on ledger paper from 1945. So much love and work went into making these lovely looking cd's that we almost didn't want to have to cut one open to listen to it. But luckily this is one of those great cases where the labor and visual aesthetic perfectly captures the warm and intimate songs contained inside.
From The Mouth of The Jar opens with the richest sounding Hammond organ and then Leyna takes the mic and matches that wave of warmth with her strong and gorgeous voice. With rich instrumentation throughout provided by Leyna and a cast of her comrades including members of Viking Moses, this is music that really is a step above most of the recent singer songwriter/folk sounds, never forgetting that it takes spirit and passion to make a song soar, and Leyna's songs ooze with so much genuine soul. Her delivery and arrangements conjure images of kindred spirits like Joanna Newsom, Edith Frost, Mira Billote (White Magic) and Cat Power. A record that really is like someone sharing with you an honest and thoughtful part of themselves, a feeling for you to cherish as you walk by their side, your spirit warmed by the true comfort they exude. The amount of time and work it took to construct these is baffling and needless to say there is a very small run of them so grab one while you can!
The Passionistas have been gaining some well deserved attention here in SF with their super catchy and colorful pop hooks, dipping their musical toes into both power pop and glam, providing the missing link between Big Star and Sparks. Speaking of Sparks, Hard Place open their side of this split with a very Sparks influenced and triumphant sounding pop nugget. There's a very early '80s larger-than-life, arena-ready aesthetic to their sound, yet it's delivered with such earnest spirit. We suspect there is some Van Halen, Andrew W.K. and maybe even a Jefferson Starship record in their collections. We lean a little towards The Passionistas on this split, but pop enthusiasts will find lots to like on both sides of this little piece of wax.
Black digipak. Black disc (both sides!). No art, no text, anywhere. Just a sticker on the shrinkwrap with the name Pom Pom, a bar code, and the Kompakt logo. Apparently this is distributed by our favorite techno label Kompakt, but is actually on the mysterious Pom Pom's own imprint, who have previously released at least thirty two 12" vinyl only Pom Pom records!
Where are Pom Pom from? Berlin of course. Making throbbing minimal so-called "psychedelic" techno since 2001. As their press release puts it: "Pom Pom reflects the monotone and hypnotic essence of techno." True dat. And here's their first compact disk, whose stark, minimal packaging more or less accurately describes its musical content. 14 tracks selected from those 32 eps, full of percussive pulses, hum and hiss, repetitive bass thump, Morse code-y clicks and beeps, little melodic robot riffs. Pom Pom often have a bit of poppiness to 'em, like the uptempo track #6. Other cuts are more about (Echo)spacey ambient drift from out in Dopplereffekt's orbit. Pom Pom are definitely our sort of "dance music", aligned with other faves from the Kompakt realm.
One of our pop records of 2008 was Get Young from Northwestern power poppers Pretty & Nice, who created a kinetic hybrid of classic pop like XTC, Sparks and Elvis Costello and the newer pop strains of the New Pornographers, Maximo Park and the Cardiacs, the resulting sound was at once insanely catchy, super off kilter and twisted as well as weirdly lush and pretty. Any pop kids out there who somehow missed out on P&N's Get Young, should go buy that one RIGHT NOW.
We were digging that record so much, that we practically flipped when we got an email from the band, who it seemed had two other releases, another full length as well as a remix ep. So we grabbed a bunch of each, and for this list we'll tackle the other full length, Pink & Blue.
All of the above mentioned references still apply, but if anything, the sound on Pink & Blue is way more raw and rocking, less programming, less keyboards, and more super rocking garage pop. The bass buzzes and rumbles, the guitars are sharp and jagged, sometimes distorted and crunchy, the vocals slipping from soaring croon to delicate falsetto, it's almost like a punk rock version of Get Young, more lo-fi and in the red, with an almost Nirvana like vibe at times, but still plenty of new wave buzz.
They also sound more Northwestern, like they could be sharing sweaty basement shows with groups like the Thermals or the Catheters, but unlike those bands, they infuse their pop with plenty of bounce and jitter, all caffeinated and wildly frenetic, the sort of band that would definitely turn a grungy backyard beer soaked house show, into a freaked out punk rock new wave dance party.
Fuck yeah.
As we mentioned in the Horna review a while back, we're pretty obsessed with Finnish black metal. There's something super distinctive about the sound, about the feel, you can almost tell within seconds that a record is Finnish. Horna, Baptism, Vordr, Satanic Warmaster, Uncreation's Dawn, Incriminated, Gestapo 666, Pest, Warloghe, Sargeist, Behexen, and then there's the other side of Finnish BM, the sort of fractured fucked up damaged side: Circle Of Ouroborus, Dead Reptile Shrine. Needless to say, that list of bands alone should be enough to convince you of the power and majesty of Finnish black metal.
Another name that belongs on that list is Prevalent Resistance, another revered Finnish horde with a Finnish pedigree that reads almost like the list above: Baptism, Circle Of Ouroborus, Vordr, Alghazanth, Unveiled, Trollheim's Grott, Black Death Ritual. And don't let the presence of Atvar from Circle Of Ouroborus mislead you, this is not some avant acoustic stumbling black dirge fucked up weirdness, this is much more in line with Horna, Baptism and Behexen, blasting melodic blackness, slipping between frenzied thrashing, and more midtempo almost-grooves, with the occasional flurry of freaked out black chaos, but for the most part his is dark solid, super heavy well produced blackness, taking elements of Burzum, Darkthrone, the usual suspects but running it through that distinctive Finnish sonic filter. Even the noisiest and most frenzied parts are infused with plenty of melody, making them soar majestically, before slipping back into something more martial and maniacal, or something more buzzing and midtempo.
This is again an instance where it's not the sound alone, but also the songs, which are surprisingly catchy, like lots of Finnish black metal, and anyone who has been digging recent Horna, should probably check this out as well. We were definitely digging this even after only a few quick listens, but weirdly enough we've found ourselves returning to this over and over again. Another seriously kick ass slab of Finnish blackness.
Having recently listed the highly popular Love Is Overtaking Me, we thought we'd bring in the other side of the Arthur Russell sound, World of Echo, a magical record he released towards the end of his life. We surprised ourselves realizing we never listed it previously, so it's time to do it some justice.
While Love Is Overtaking Me introduced a previously unheard side to Arthur Russell fans, it also brought in a new audience perhaps less in tune with Russell's more high-minded musical pursuits. World of Echo is a perfect in-between place for fans and new-comers. Released in 1987, World of Echo concentrates on Russell's use of the cello, percussion and voice filtered through a bank of effects. There is a minimalist oceanic dub vibe that weaves through these highly personal songs that are affecting, not so much by what he is singing but how. Soft and low, his voice quavers over spare echoing instrumentation that bends towards the beautifully abstract. Like floating in calm oceans towards the void of the sun, melting into its warmth, this is a record that influenced a generation of music makers (Grizzly Bear, Coconut, Final Fantasy, Juana Molina, Animal Collective / Panda Bear, Hanne Hukkelberg, etc) and continues to beguile us. Highly recommended!
One of our favorite tracks from The Numero Group's excellent Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies From The Canyon compilation was "Cricket" by Collie Ryan. A hippie devotee of Theosophy, Ryan recorded three lovely private press records in the early seventies that featured her stunning artwork and songs that subtly touched on mystical and Native American themes. Her high-pitch bird-like vocals, sheathed in reverb, and complex guitar arrangements fall heavier on the Linda Perhacs side of the Joni Mitchell coin than say, someone like Judee Sill, who also dealt with mystical themes but was more tied to a commercially viable singer-songwriter scene. The Hour is Now is a vinyl-only "best of" of sorts that combines tracks from all three records (yet mysteriously no "Cricket"...) and will save the less diehard fans from shelling out a couple of hundred dollars for the originals. The analog mastering was even supervised by none other than by J. D. Emmanuel! Beautiful stuff!!!
We didn't realize this was still available until someone happened to order one the other day. And being so easy to get, we had to get more to share with everyone.
Easily one of our favorite folk rock records from the day, probably our favorite Buffy Sainte-Marie album ever, Illuminations is truly strange and beautiful. A heady brew of gothic folk elements, Native American invocations and bewitching electronic effects and magical drones. Her vocals sometimes soft and saintly, othertimes heavy, rocking and intense. Originally released in 1969 on the awesome Vanguard label, no other Buffy Sainte-Marie record is quite like this one, with songs that are poetically beautiful dealing with themes of love and injustice through esoteric supernatural imagery of vampires, angels, mystical rites and creation myths, and with music that is equally beguiling. From the first spiraling electric vocal warbles that open "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot", the Cluster like drones on "The Angel", the witchy folk-funk of "He's A Keeper of The Fire" to the final track, "Poppies" that presages Grouper by nearly forty years. Fantastic!
The veil of mediated sound hangs heavy upon the work of Colin Andrew Sheffield, a Texan born sound artist currently living in Seattle. His work is almost entirely based upon recontextualizing sounds from already released works, although unlike such plunderphonic artists like Christian Marclay, John Oswald, and Wobbly who allow for the samples to utter their origins, Sheffield obliterates almost all of the references into a field of static vibrations, densely compacted layerings, and hyper-stretched drones. Through his digital crucible, Sheffield extracts something almost completely different out of the sources that he puts into it.
In running the ever impressive Elevator Bath label, Sheffield has found an outlet for a handful of his recordings, mostly as small run editions with the one exception being his outstanding First Thus cd. Signatures was commissioned by the San Francisco based label Invisible Birds, as the debut in what hopes to be a great catalogue of sound art composition that's somehow related to bird sounds and their environment. Keeping true to his working methods, Sheffield's contribution to Invisible Birds reclaims sounds from other records amidst what Sheffield claims to be field recordings of water and birds. The results have been so heavily obfuscated through the process that it's hard to hear any twitter of birdsong. The thunderous low-end repetition on the last track is purported to be the flapping of a bird's wing, but it's hard to discern. All of this said, Sheffield's results are gorgeous. At first, the album has almost an ominous feel, as a shimmering, arctic hush is shot forth from the speakers with layer upon layer of sympathetic vibrations interweaving into a hypnotic, if cybernetic sound. It sounds sort of like the classic Chain Reaction artists like Porter Ricks or Hallucinator with all of the techno extracted, and only a cold, cold drone of digitality left behind. By the end of the album, Sheffield brightens things into a stunning crescendo of church organ-like chords suspended in time and space with glints of vinyl crackle hanging like sunflecked dust floating in air. Here, Sheffield gives the impression of William Basinski reclaiming a Ligetti choral piece. Very highly recommended.
INSANELY LIMITED. Already out of print. This is the super deluxe version which comes housed in a quite nice box, the disc wrapped in fabric, and includes a booklet and a bonus 3" cd-r!!
It's rare that you hear music that is cinematic and mathy at the same time, but local duo Silian Rail manage to create and fill space simultaneously. Often recording songs specifically for film, Silian Rail avoid the usual post-rock quiet-loud-quiet dynamics and instead focus on pools of tight-knit melodic intensity and unsettled serpentine intricacy.
Of course, the influence of Tortoise and Slint can definitely be heard, but Silian Rail doesn't solely rely on these influences and manages to create a softly tumultous epic all their own.
While we love and appreciate the music of Simian Mobile Disco, created of course on all analog equipment with sights set on a flashing dancefloor, it's really the incredible DJ skills of Simian Mobile Disco that impresses us the most. A few of us have seen them play their sets before and it really was some of the best dancefloor/DJ action we've ever experienced. So we were super excited about their entry in the Fabriclive series.
This should really be used as a template/textbook for all aspiring dancefloor DJ's. SMD are masterful at mixing both the obvious and the obscure, the expected and the very UNexpected. From disco to four-on-the-floor techno, rife with great peaks and valleys with great twists and turns throughout, this is a mix made for playing loud or as the soundtrack to the kind of party that involves bodies moving with reckless abandon. Who else could somehow sneak in Raymond Scott, Moondog, and Moebius/Plank/Neumeier into a mix featuring Hercules & The Love Affair, Plastikman and Tomita and make it all flow so effortlessly? There is a danger sometimes with DJ's playing show-off with their record collections, but Simian Mobile Disco really utilize their great taste in music for maximum dance floor effect. They would be the perfect group to DJ a Daft Punk after party! Aspiring DJ's get out your notebooks cause school is in session!
Here at aQ we get the pleasure of watching bands grow and change over the years. Sure, some bands head off the deep end never to be heard from again, but others mature and grow into something even beyond what we could've ever imagined. Ben Chasny is the perfect example of the latter. After releasing well over a dozen albums, we've watched Chasny evolve into one of the most prominent music makers of our time. Don't get us wrong, there are plenty of other super talented and super awesome downer psych folk yogis, BUT none even come close to matching the mind bending artistry that Chasny has perfected.
We cant even tell you how many people have come into the shop only to proclaim, "What?! A new Six Organs record!?! I'll take it!" And this isn't even exactly a new record, although this material is new to most of us, as Drag City has reissued a bunch of older, more obscure and hard to find Six Organs tracks.
While "Punish the Chasm with Wings" is the only completely unheard track on RTZ, the rest of these songs are taken from various cd splits, limited pressed cdrs, compilations and a 12" split with Charlambidies, highly anticipated early work straight from the dusty vaults of Mr. Chasny. Named after a button on his beloved four-track recorder, RTZ is an acronym for Return to Zero, a highly appropriate title for an album that revisits the early beginnings of his prolific career.
In some ways, RTZ is more of the same gorgeous woodsy, somber guitar work from Chasny, but what makes RTZ one of our favorite Six Organs records is the sheer epicness of every track. Beautifully composed with close attention to detail, the majority of the songs span well over the ten minute mark, most almost reaching 20 minutes! Every track carries the weight of an entire album, each taking the listener on a different path through the overgrown reaches of some forested wonderland. Hypnotic guitar pluckings hovering over vocal mantras that shapeshift into quiet soundscapes, rhythmic tambourine and flute passages sway with the hanging branches as plumes of smoke rise magnificently into the air. Chasny's guitar playing is completely spot on, sincere and dimly lit, we can just picture him with eyes closed, hunched over in the corner of some candlelit run-down cabin, channeling the words and songs of spirits lost in the woods. Complete with a cool lookin' black metal-esque Six Organs logo on the cover, RTZ is a must have, especially for fans of anything Six Organs (or anything remotely similar for that matter)!!
Everyone has their own particular favorite Skullflower era, the pummeling Swans-like crush of the early records, the blown out free drone guitar skree of Obsidian Shaking Codex, the tripped out druggy riffy space rock of Exquisite Fucking Boredom and Orange Canyon Mind, or the full on face melting guitarnoise assault of more recent releases, as far as we're concerned it ALL rules, whether heavy or noisy, pounding and pummeling or drifting and shimmering, Matthew Bower and whatever other noisemakers he manages to assemble, are responsible for some of the most amazing OUTrock records of the last twenty years, if not ever.
One of the best is no doubt Last Shot At Heaven, released in 1993, which features the band as a trio, and looks ahead to the dirgey riffage of Exquisite Fucking Boredom, but mixes in plenty of druggy shimmer (lots of Sunroof! foreshadowing), post industrial pound and psychedelic guitar freakout. This is WAY out of print, but the label discovered a box of 40 or so stashed away, so we took all they had left (25 copies), needless to say, these are the last copies EVER, the label has no plans to repress, and we took every remaining copy, so if you want one, be quick!
Last Shot explodes right off the bat with "Caligula" a dirgey riff heavy groove, all massive plodding pound, and squalls of wah guitar, howled vocals buried in the mix, streaks of feedback, tangled guitar melodies, very metallic and definitely heavy, but still plenty space-y and krauty. The follow up "Get The Horn" is all looped shimmer and pulsing thrum, peppered with growling distorted guitars, and spaced out drum pound, the growling guitars intensifying over the near static "Baba O'Reilly" like synth part. "Dufus" is an ultra distorted lo-fi garagedoom dirge, Dead C style free rock recorded at the bottom of a well, still thick with swirling guitars and simple plodding drums. "Bad Alchemy" is total proto metal, a killer main riff, wrapped in squiggly guitar freak out, the whole thing a woozy metallic groove, locked into an endless loop, the vocals a thick effected drawl off in the distance, "Elf Piercer" is a bit of Hawkwindy style space rock, again, locked into a relentless loop, effects everywhere, the guitars wild and tangled, "Rotten Sun II" is a super blown out doomic dirge, with howled vox and super jagged caustic riffage, and rhythms buried beneath the crumbling distortion, "Mystic Eye" is all tribal drumming, buzzing guitar, throbbing bass, soaring melodies, the most straight up rock of any of the tracks, but once it achieves maximum volume, it again gets looped into a seemingly endless jam, and finally "Blown Dukes", a hazy guitar drift, all warm whir and warble, thick buzz, disembodied riff, eventually joined by spare drumming, before devolving into a free rock freakout.
One of the more accessible Skullflower records for sure, but fear not, still plenty heavy and noisy and psychedelic, and unfortunately, almost for sure, your last chance to get your hands on one.
Stop right there. FANS ONLY past this point. We're serious. Fortunately, we know that these heavy metal eccentrics have enthusiastic fans (as this release proves). Slough Feg have become one of those love 'em or hate 'em cult bands, where if you like 'em at all, you probably like 'em A LOT. Those of you for whom that's true, you just might be very interested in this double cd archival collection of, as the subtitle says, "Early Demos and Live Recordings". Meant to look a bit like a bootleg (since the band certainly doesn't want anyone to mistake this for a NEW Slough Feg album), it compiles obscure old recordings that many of Slough Feg's most dedicated followers haven't even heard. This stuff's from way, way down deep in the vaults. Be warned, though, the sound quality can be, in a word, rough. Shitty, even. Like we said, for fans only. If you're not already a 'Feg fan, but curious about these weird, Iron Maiden-y San Franciscan metal masters, may we suggest checking out their most recent opus Hardworlder (reviewed elsewhere on our site, along with all their other albums) and going from there?
Ok, with that caveat emptor out of the way, we tell you true fans more about what you're gonna find here. Two discs' worth of Slough Feg history, going all the way back to the band's debut DIY demo cassette recording from the summer of 1990. That's what disc one starts with, the nine tracks of "The White Tape" (so called because the cassette they used for the master was white). The, er, "production" quality is seriously fucked up, lower-than-lo-fi with crazy level changes, weird bleed-throughs echoing from other tracks, abrupt edits, buzzing guitars and tape hiss... but give it a few minutes and you might get used to it! What do you expect from a tape made almost 20 years ago by some kids in a basement who barely knew how to work their borrowed 4-track?? However, people who have heard it had been bugging 'em to release it on cd and so here it is, in all its gnarly glory. The first thing a Slough Feg fan will notice is that it's not Mike Scalzi singing! The band lineup back then was quite a bit different from what most Slough Feg fans are familiar with. Band leader/chief songwriter Mike Scalzi wasn't the vocalist, in fact, he didn't even always play guitar. The band's original frontman was Omar Herd, who did his charismatic best to be "the black Paul Di'Anno". Chris Haa (older brother to eventual, erstwhile Slough Feg drummer Greg) was the lead guitarist. And Dave Passmore played drums. Mike, Dave and Omar had all been in bands together before, in the local Central Pennsylvania punk/hardcore scene.
On this earliest stuff with Omar on the mic you can definitely hear their punk/hc roots. As raw and crappy as the sound is, the sheer frantic youthful energy and absurd abandon of these tracks is exciting and infectious. And despite the vintage and the variant lineup, it's definitely the Slough Feg fans know & love. You'll even recognize some of the songs, as the band recorded most - but not all - of 'em later on in their career. "Warp Spasm", "Highway Corsair", "Marauder", "Slough Feg", "Highlander"... But you've never heard "Sheets Of Red", "Journey Through The Halls Of Insanity", "Thoughts Of Sympathy", or "The Rock Song", although bits of some of them were cannibalized here and there for other songs. Maybe someday they'll do "The Rock Song" again, though it's hard to imagine Mike singing Omar's love gone bad lyrics about anchorman Dan Rather...
Next up on disc one is what might be our favorite stretch of this whole set, a live soundboard recording from a 1990 show at a firehall in Altoona, PA. Mike plays bass, which is mainly heard as a clicking clacking of pick on strings, but very little actual "bass". Omar's vocals come through loud and proud though. And his between-song shit-talking, crowd-baiting banter is amusing. They do five songs off of The White Tape, plus a cover of Judas Priest's "Breakin' The Law". Again, the snotty, adrenalized, off-the-rails metallic madness of the whole thing is exhilarating and fun.
Disc one finishes up with two demo tracks ("Highway Corsair" and "Highlander", the latter with completely different alternate lyrics) recorded in 1994, now with Mike on vocals, a couple years after Slough Feg (minus Omar and Dave) relocated to San Francisco.
Disc two jumps forward to present live material recorded circa 1999-2002, after Slough Feg had some albums out. Bassists vary, but John Cobbett (Hammers Of Misfortune) shares guitar duties with Scalzi on all of this - stuff from a couple shows in San Francisco, and a gig in Germany (on tour with Solstice in 2000). Tracks from their self-titled first album, Twilight Of The Idols, Down Among The Deadmen, and Traveller all are aired, along with another never-studio-recorded number, a cover version of "Heavy Metal Hunter" by Japan's Metalucifer, which for a while was their standard encore. Though the distorted sound quality isn't what you'd hope for from an official live album, it's ok for a bootleg, which is basically what this is, a somewhat reluctantly authorized boot. We're only disappointed that they didn't include some other old demos, and/or live recordings we're sure must exist - where's their stoner rock jam "Radical Man" or their unlikely cover of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon"?!
These discs are packaged with some of the artwork that inspired Slough Feg, from the Slaine comic book. Also there's old flyers from shows "back in the day" with lots of random local bands who definitely aren't still around, that's for sure. The booklet also includes photos, and lyrics to the songs. But no liner notes, unfortunately. As a substitute, you do get, as the final track on disc two, a candid, slightly silly interview with mainman Mike Scalzi done for a German radio show in 2000. Wherein he claims that Slough Feg would be much more popular had he called the band "The Shit Boys" or "Nuclear Fate Europe", cites Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Tiny Tim as his main influences, and openly discusses his gay love affair with Sacred Steel singer Gerrit Mutz.
We're pretty confident that all diehard, true 'Feg fans (you might be one, if you're still reading this!) will find the material on The Slay Stack Grows to be of interest... historical, maybe hysterical, and without a doubt headbangin'. Besides, metallers tend to fetishize artifacts such as this, harking back to ye olde tape trading days, and while probably no one has ever traded a copy of The White Tape, that portion of this (and more) definitely evokes the ancient spirit of the eighties and earlier. Heck, maybe the scrappy (lack of) production will attract some underground black metal fans to the 'Feg. And now that The White Tape by 'the true' Slough Feg is immortalized on compact disc, fans can now wonder what the band would be like now if Omar had remained the singer...
Oh, and speaking of diehard fetishistic stuff, get this: apparently Shadow Kingdom are gonna also release this on quadruple vinyl!! We'll believe it when we see it, however, 'cause that's crazy.
Sorc'Henn's last disc, Harmonium Pieces & Dead Reveries, which was released on Faunsabbatha, the more 'metal' sub label of Ruralfaune, wasn't actually a metal record, more a dark dronescape, whirring expanses of Lustmordian Wolf Eyes style post industrial buzzing black shimmer.
This latest Sorc'henn disc, released on Crucial Bliss (another sub-label, this time of Crucial Blast) is even more removed from anything metal. And in many ways anything dark. At least the 21 minute opener, which plays out like an Argento soundtrack composed by Oval, all shimmering layers, and skipping cds, looped ambience, that glimmer and glistens, a bit of Philip Jeck, a little Tim Hecker, all fuzzy and crackly melodies locked into haunting loops, while over the top, a child's voice whispers, and in the background bits of bird song. Truly creepy, but simultaneously quite lovely, totally mesmerizing, would have been happy if this track was stretched out to fill the whole disc. Odds are you'll find yourself listening to it over and over, luxuriating in its haunting mystery, eyes closed, picturing some old crumbling estate, surrounded by dark forests, a child peeking from the heavy curtains in an upstairs window.
After that, the sound gets even more fuzzed out and crackly, a warm washed out hiss, speckled with bits of crackle and pop, a slowly unfurling minimal melody way off in the distance, the sound of thundering low end drifting by like black clouds, warm whirring organs, bits of electronic glitch, deep throbbing reverberating buzz, all leading up to the 27 minute long final track, a totally demented black musickal ritual, deep rumbles, growled Darth Vader like invokations, bits of industrial clatter, squalls of hiss, whirling streaks of effects, detuned guitars, woozy melodies, thick waves of crumbling buzz, slivers of feedback, creaking and groaning machinelike ambience, distorted chimes, disembodied vocals howling and moaning, a truly harrowing black and bleak soundscape, finishing off with a brief snippet of an old timey French piano ballad, adding even more mystery to the song's already eerie and mystical vibe.
Like all the Crucial Bliss releases, packaged in a cool 3 panel full color fold over sleeve.
MISSISSIPPI Alert! MISSISSIPPI Alert! MISSISSIPPI Alert!
Wow! This is unlike any gospel or African music we've heard. The Spiritual Singers were (are?) an evangelical pop group hailing from Brazzaville, that fused Afropop, R&B, garage rock, high off-kilter vocals and epic harmonies into a strange amalgam of groovy far-flung devotionals. Fronted by Berthe Loudi, whose amazing vocal quality borders on the endearingly outsiderish: raw, passionate and high keening at times, almost out of tune but in a way that goes perfectly with the music, tempered by the lovingly angelic quality of the back-up harmonies. The combo features two guitars, bass, organ and some really amazing drumming that kicks up the grooves on the faster numbers and highlights the epic devotional quality on the slower ones. Released in 1980, this is another highly worthwhile entry in the Mississippi catalog. Remember, these are limited!
With the big revival that disco has enjoyed the last couple years we thought no time better than now then to dip into the vaults for some true vintage disco classics. The meeting of worlds between German producer Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer really was the blueprint for much of the cosmic disco that would follow and be revived and reinvented in recent years by labels like Italians Do It Better (Glass Candy, Chromatics, Farah, etc.) as well as folks like Escort, Lindstrom, Prins Thomas and mega pop-stars like Madonna and Beyonce. But hard as they try, none of them can match the true ecstasy of cosmic dancefloor delight that Moroder and Donna Summer created together in their golden years of collaboration circa 1975-1979.
Bad Girls came at the tail end of their collaboration, as the '80s and on would find a much less coked-out Donna Summer creating way less memorable material after this golden era. While our all time favorite and pretty much totally perfect Donna Summer records are probably Love To Love You Baby, and Four Seasons Of Love, Bad Girls contains some of our favorite Donna Summer tracks!
While not every one of the fifteen tracks on Bad Girls is a classic, the majority are so smoking and fun! Recorded in 1979, Moroder and Summer were aware that the heyday of disco was waning a bit so there are healthy hints of new wave, pop and even a few ballads in the mix, but the strength of Bad Girls is all about its bright uptempo thrillers that will always stand the test of time.
There definitely seems to be a pattern developing with recent Records Of The Week. The Loop reissues a few lists back, The Telescopes last time, and now Swervedriver. We hadn't really noticed at first, we were just so damn excited that so many of our favorite records were getting reissued. And while it might seem a bit strange to be looking back instead of forward, most of the music we love now wouldn't even exist if it weren't for these bands, or if they did they'd sound WAY different. And the thing is, the aQuarius list is in no way comprehensive and complete, as we only started doing it about 12 or 13 years ago, which means everything pre-1995 or '96 is not represented, which is a huge bummer since the late eighties and early nineties are the very times that defined most of us musically. Thus we've done our best to review reissues of lost classics, or even not lost classics, from those eras, eighties metal, shoegaze, grunge, nineties college rock, the list of records we discovered during that time, that STILL resonate and kick ass could fill up a hundred aQ lists. So instead of dwelling on the fact that these are not actually new, let's just consider then records we loved, and still love, and records we're convinced folks out there who are too young to remember, or may have just missed out the first time around, will probably also love, records that had they been released later, would have no doubt been showered with adoration on the aQ list. Which brings us to a unanimous aQ fave, UK heavy shoegazers Swervedriver.
Calling Swervedriver shoegaze is a bit misleading, they were tangentially part of that scene, and their sound definitely had a bit of drift and shimmer to it, but unlike the rest of the shoegazers, Swervedriver were HEAVY. Super rocking, their wall of guitars was not ethereal and ephemeral, it was crunchy and distorted and thick, and besides all that, they wrote some of the catchiest songs ever. EVER. The sort of songs that explode into frenzied psychedelic shoegaze freakouts, but just as quickly slip into a dark chugging grooves with hooks that stick in your head like crazy, and parts the still to this day illicit shivers, even after a hundred listens. Rare is the band who can define a sound, and a scene and then totally transcend it.
For those new to Swervedriver, they definitely share much in common with their shoegaze scene compatriots My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Catherine Wheel, Chapterhouse, and the like, but as mentioned above, that shoegazey haze was just one element in their arsenal, and not at all the main one, that would be the dueling guitars, heavy and crunchy, melodic and lush, soaring one second grinding and chugging the next, often tangled into gorgeous harmonies, or layered to create thick walls of sound, those formed the basis of their sonic blueprint, over which they crafted incredible hook filled songs, some washed out and swoonsome, others hard and jagged and HEAVY. The vocals melodic but still plenty rough and raw, perfectly complimenting the heavy guitars and pounding drums, an impossibly perfect balance between heavy and pretty, hooky and hard, which is precisely what makes Swervedriver, one of our favorite bands ever.
Mezcal Head was Swervedriver record number two, released in 1993, and featured a slightly altered lineup, that if anything made the band sound even heavier. Almost like Raise part two, with the hooks dialed back again, and the heavy guitars cranked, but again, like on Raise, it's hard to pick any losers, every track here is catchy and heavy, and sounds like Swervedriver and nobody else. And as if to balance the heaviness, there are a handful of tracks more dark and drifting and almost mellow, interspersed between the bursts of shoegazey heaviness.
"Duel" is definitely the one here, the band's biggest hit, and it's easy to see why, with an incredibly heavy main riff, and swirling effects all over the place, the vocals a lazy drawled afterthought, and the hook, totally destroys, and still gives us chills, the second half is much poppier, with the song growing gradually more mellow and washed out, a sort of low key space rock outro.
Then there's "Last Train To Satansville", with another killer main riff / hook, and some truly haunting vocals, lots of effects too, in fact this record found the band's obsession with pedals becoming even more evident, with various elements wreathed in delay and reverb and flange and phaser, and impossible combinations of all four, creating swirling clouds of psychedelic shoegaze space rock, a sound even more expansive than on Raise. The rest of the songs, while maybe not as immediately catchy, are still fantastic, the sort of songs that become later favorites, one at a time. Whatever song was least listened to, gets rediscovered and blossoms before your very ears, making you wonder why the heck you weren't obsessed with THAT one in the first place. That's the magic of this record, and of this band. Both Mezcal Head and Raise are essential, two parts of a larger ever evolving whole, so buy one at your peril, because no doubt you'll eventually find yourself needing the other.
Like Raise, totally essential, WAY recommended, and absolutely required listening.
For the reissue of Raise, they tacked on 4 extra tracks, B-sides, outtakes, which includes is one of the best Swervedriver songs ever, "Planes Over The Skyline", a Japanese bonus track on the original release, a B-side we think, but holy shit, if the band was kicking out B-sides of this caliber, it's no wonder their records proper were so mind blowing.
New packaging, a deluxe 6 panel digipak with a thick booklet packed with photos and new liner notes from the band.
There definitely seems to be a pattern developing with recent Records Of The Week. The Loop reissues a few lists back, The Telescopes last time, and now Swervedriver. We hadn't really noticed at first, we were just so damn excited that so many of our favorite records were getting reissued. And while it might seem a bit strange to be looking back instead of forward, most of the music we love now wouldn't even exist if it weren't for these bands, or if they did they'd sound WAY different. And the thing is, the aQuarius list is in no way comprehensive and complete, as we only started doing it about 12 or 13 years ago, which means everything pre-1995 or '96 is not represented, which is a huge bummer since the late eighties and early nineties are the very times that defined most of us musically. Thus we've done our best to review reissues of lost classics, or even not lost classics, from those eras, eighties metal, shoegaze, grunge, nineties college rock, the list of records we discovered during that time, that STILL resonate and kick ass could fill up a hundred aQ lists. So instead of dwelling on the fact that these are not actually new, let's just consider then records we loved, and still love, and records we're convinced folks out there who are too young to remember, or may have just missed out the first time around, will probably also love, records that had they been released later, would have no doubt been showered with adoration on the aQ list. Which brings us to a unanimous aQ fave, UK heavy shoegazers Swervedriver.
Calling Swervedriver shoegaze is a bit misleading, they were tangentially part of that scene, and their sound definitely had a bit of drift and shimmer to it, but unlike the rest of the shoegazers, Swervedriver were HEAVY. Super rocking, their wall of guitars was not ethereal and ephemeral, it was crunchy and distorted and thick, and besides all that, they wrote some of the catchiest songs ever. EVER. The sort of songs that explode into frenzied psychedelic shoegaze freakouts, but just as quickly slip into a dark chugging grooves with hooks that stick in your head like crazy, and parts the still to this day illicit shivers, even after a hundred listens. Rare is the band who can define a sound, and a scene and then totally transcend it.
For those new to Swervedriver, they definitely share much in common with their shoegaze scene compatriots My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Catherine Wheel, Chapterhouse, and the like, but as mentioned above, that shoegazey haze was just one element in their arsenal, and not at all the main one, that would be the dueling guitars, heavy and crunchy, melodic and lush, soaring one second grinding and chugging the next, often tangled into gorgeous harmonies, or layered to create thick walls of sound, those formed the basis of their sonic blueprint, over which they crafted incredible hook filled songs, some washed out and swoonsome, others hard and jagged and HEAVY. The vocals melodic but still plenty rough and raw, perfectly complimenting the heavy guitars and pounding drums, an impossibly perfect balance between heavy and pretty, hooky and hard, which is precisely what makes Swervedriver, one of our favorite bands ever.
And Raise one of our favorite -records- ever. Released in 1991, for anyone our age, or thereabouts, it was pretty difficult to not see Swervedriver everywhere, MTV, 120 Minutes, college radio, when Raise came out it was like nothing we had ever heard before, incredibly catchy and hooky but so rocking. And the songs, shit, most bands would give anything to have written "Son Of Mustang Ford" or "Rave Down", or heck, anything on Raise. But yeah, let's take "Son Of Mustang Ford". Plenty of folks will recognize it within seconds, that pounding rhythm, the thick layered guitars, and that main guitar hook, immediately exploding into an almost Treepeople (pre-Built To Spill) guitar tangle beneath killer vocals, before returning to that opening groove. Furious, and dark, and minor key, but so epic and kick ass, total head banging air guitar shoegaze nirvana. Then there's "Rave Down", their other big hit, that displays Swervedriver's other sonic side, guitars that a languorous and sunbaked, but still distorted and heavy, the song woozy and lilting without losing any of its power, and a change that still gives us goosebumps almost two decades later.
The thing with Swervedriver was that even though they had actual hits, the record was packed with could have been should have also been hits. Pretty much every song is hooky and heavy and catchy, not a weak track in the bunch. "Sandblasted", "Sci Flyer", both heavy blissed out rockers, "Feel So Real" sounds almost like a tougher heavier Lemonheads, with it's sweet little main melody and total pop main hook.
Totally and absolutely essential.
For the reissue of Raise, they tacked on 4 extra tracks, B-sides, outtakes, and damn if they don't sound just as kick ass as the album tracks proper. New packaging, deluxe 6 panel digipak with a thick booklet packed with photos and new liner notes from the band.
Here's one of those mysteriously dark, mysteriously packaged, and mysteriously produced records that we love here at aQ. It's hard to say really who is doing what on this album, which may be considered a collaboration, may be a split, may be a set of remixes, or somewhere in between. SYNB is the work of Matt Brinkmann who had a couple of releases on Load a while back as Mr. Brinkmann, of fuzzed clunk and bass, but more recently has acquired notoriety as a member of the Paper Rad comic 'n' video collective. HSDOM is the work of Jochen Hartmann, half of the mighty (if under-appreciated) UW Owl, whose deadtech rhythms and blackened noise conjure the best that SPK or Factrix had managed in their most feral and brutal period. Phaserprone states that this release features SYNB reworking HSDOM materials and HSDOM reworking SYNB's recording Black/Gold Chip, although there is very little to indicate which tracks are done by or to whom. No matter how you look at it, this album seems to follow more of the UW Owl monstrousness, and it fucking rules!
After a grim introduction of close-looped feedback pushed through subharmonic distortion pedals for a thicket of skinscraping noise, convulsive rhythms tread through a perpetually exploding minefield of analog synths and circuit bent chaos. Ash, soot, toxic rain, nuclear fallout, brimstone, and any other suitably apocalyptic residue seems to hang on every blast of electricity, whether that be the abject white noise turned black or the jacked-up beats overdriven with distortion and hotwired fuzz. Within these entirely instrumental tracks, SYNB and HSDOM offer an alternative course for where Wolf Eyes could have dramatically improved their strategies of making hellish robotic electronica.
Nicely packaged in a letterpressed cover in an edition of 200 copies.
We've all been a bit obsessed with Varghkoghargasmal since we first got our hands on the Call Of The Raven cassette, a stumbling confusional chunk of what the band calls 'wooden metal', one of us was so obsessed, that he released a full length Varghkoghargasmal record on his label (Andee, we're talking to you!), which took that wooden metal sound even further, creating a gorgeously evocative foresty black metal assembled from wavery warbly keyboards, off kilter drumming, and strummed clean guitars. But we never stopped to wonder what that wooden metal would sound like in a more traditional black metal setting, blacker and more distorted, more frostbitten more grim, well, now we don't have to wonder, as Varghkoghargasmal mainman (and only man really) Avenger, has unleashed this dark opus, the latest from his -other- one man band Szarlem, ominously titled Night Of Blood, and you know what? It sounds exactly how we would have expected, exactly how we had hoped. The same sort of Viking tinged stumbling bizarre loping black metal, that in its wooden form played out like some sort of fractured krautrock, but here, imbued with fire and frost and black buzz, it becomes an awesomely fucked up collection of midtempo black metal weirdness.
The guitars are thick and crusty and distorted, churning and chugging, the vocals a WAY up in the mix maniacal growl, and the drums, just like in Varghkoghargasmal, wander and stumble, adding a whole other element to Szarlem's sound, giving the proceedings a sort of black metal Shaggs vibe. But rather than sound fucked up and demented (well, it still does actually), it flows perfectly with the rest of the sounds, with the music, the whole thing a woozy warbly, off kilter, blackened stumbling lope, sometimes locking into an almost punkish groove, other times unfurling slow burning Burzumic sprawls, some of the tracks laced with haunting keyboards, fluttering little Casio melodies draped over the lurching blackness below, the best moments are when those keyboards lock in with the guitars and conjure up haunting harmonies, creating creepy almost Goblin like black metal buzz, but those moments are fleeting, as the tracks usually slip back into some thrashing blackness or meandering buzzing drift.
Lo-fi, raw and demented, dark and emotional and weirdly epic, this is some truly inspired, truly unique outsider black metal. And is thus WAY recommended.
It's been over a year since we've heard from Tarentel. Not since their Ghetto Beats release in 2007. Since then the various members have been doing their own things, recording solo records, playing in other bands, running labels, and while this is not an actual new record it will go a long way to tiding us over until the next proper Tarentel release.
Live Edits, as the title suggests, are various recordings from their 2005 European tour, short excerpts and edits from looooong live performances. The first thing you notice, in one of the Switzerland shows, which was hinted at on Ghetto Beats, is how much more rhythmic they can get live, the drums seem to be THE driving force. Offering up dense flurries of tribal rhythms, pounding out mysterious rituals, while the rest of the band contribute sounds and textures in the background, high pitched sine waves, sheets of feedback, processed guitar scrabble, whirring drones, very abstract and tripped out. But at another show in a different Swiss city, the drums are ditched completely, or if they are present, they are processed into another layer of buzzing drone, to pile atop the already intense wall of sound being conjured up, lots of rumble and hiss, a deep mysterious pulse buried beneath, which eventually builds to something much more blissy and melodic, guitars ringing out, chiming, woven into an ethereal shimmer.
Back at the first Swiss show, the group create a mysterious soundscape of creaking machinery, haunting loops, and heavily effected guitars, left to drift through a super abstract dubby drift.
In Italy, Tarentel offer up yet more minimalism, guitars scrape and groan, creating a rough smear of textured hum, over a distant soft focus shimmer, before letting the guitars growl and buzz, building to a thick throbbing swirl.
The above were just the longer tracks, those are actually separated by brief snippets of various performances, from awesomely chaotic glitched out synthscapery, to deep FX drenched dark ambience, to creepy expanses of low end sprawl and whirring blackened rumbles, all of the tracks, are deftly placed to create the flow of a proper record, the various performances, and the varied sounds, smeared and blurred into one stretched out abstract freeform whole.
Packaged in a cool 2 color silkscreened cardstock sleeve, and LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Don't even try pronouncing this band's name. Just sit back, relax and let the murky tones send you into a cosmic nightmare, where fried-out Afro-beats meet mind melting droney destruction. Sound too awesome to be true? We thought so too. Solo project of Matthew Rogers, member of the heavy hitting Wildildlife (and former aQ employee!!), Live In The Shit is the latest live recording from Upsputspud, and it's a warm engulfing wave of fucked up bliss. Side A begins with a slow building wall of harsh, New Agey drones, kinda reminding us of taking a Cocteau Twins intro and sending it through all kinds of analog fuzziness and delay. A subtle rhythm creeps up from from the hazy horizon, a hypnotic pulse turning and melting into pools of cosmic dust. Usputuspud emits a sound solely its own, lo-fi astral loops soaked in layers of dirt and fuzz, like a more damaged and lo-fi Zomes (if you can even imagine). Side B starts things running, layers of epic harmonica growing louder and louder until some low end crumble begins to eat away at the tape itself. Drugged out psychedelic filth, soaked in radiation and neon face paint, left out in the desert to dry. Imagine a more mysterious and epic sounding Monopoly Star Child Searchers, then thrown in a dash of rhythmic weirdness, and you have Live In The Shit. Limited to 80 tapes in a cryptic xeroxed insert, these will go fast, so don't be left in the dust on this one!
From the same label that brought us that amazing Shitmat grunge cover split (the one that came packaged in actual flannel shirts!) comes this new vinyl only comp of totally fucked up and genius junglized drill and bass ravecore, featuring the best Shitmat track in ages!
A sort of cover of Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" but all sped up and doused in drum damage with manic synth stabs and chopped up jungle beats and that Oasis track is all cut up so the line about "getting high" is repeated over and over, all tangled up with Shitmat's completely insane spastic beat freakout. So good. And the rest ain't so shabby either. Mochipet offers up a murky and manic jam, plenty of glitch, pounding beat, all sorts of garbled sounds, chopped up samples, eventually transforming into a crazed jungle blowout. The Foxdye take a Pointer Sisters track, speed it up, twist it all around, add some seriously frenzied drill and bass, and turn it into the dance party JAM OF THE YEAR for sure!
The flipside is pretty great too, Blaerg revs up some FM radio chestnut dousing it in THICK jungle bass and wild spastic drum skitter. The H8RS go all old school rave but add plenty of jungle, the whole thing getting all stuttery and skittery. Graz offers up some classic nineties style jungle rave, and finally Selector Catalogue takes some old school B-Boy jam, revs it up, flips the speed to 78, adds a heap of distortion, and tangles the whole thing into a gnarled squall of hiccupping stop start, ultra dense skipping and stuttering droned out fractured drum damaged ravecore. Fuck yeah.
Gorgeous packaging too. Eye popping full color cartoon cover, each one hand customized, and each one hand numbered (LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!), pressed on thick green and yellow swirled vinyl.
Under the curatorial vision of Phil Mouldycliff, 13 artists embarked on a sound-art exhibition at the Bolton Museum, Art Gallery and Aquarium, whereby (to the best of our understanding) the artists were given access to the Museum's collections of natural artifacts to use within the installations and as sound making devices. In turn these installations (which also involved paintings, drawings, prints, sound, and sculptures fabricated by the exhibiting artists) became something of what Mouldycliff qualified as an "accumulation of fragments." The participating artists included Colin Potter, Loren Chasse, Keith Rowe, Max Eastley, Russell Mills, Julian Lees, Peter Oakley, Tom Phillips, Colin Fallows, Hugh Davies, Glenda Lees, Paul Mason, and Phil Mouldycliff.
As none of us had the good fortune of experiencing the exhibition, we can only comment on the catalogue (which artfully presents the numerous ideas behind all of the contributing artists) and the accompanying CD which features a mix of material produced for the catalogue by Colin Potter of various sounds produced by Rowe, Chasse, Mouldycliff and himself. As the disc begins, it's apparent who is the creator of those first sounds: AQ-fav sound artist Loren Chasse as he presents a delicate crackling of natural tactility above a rarified drone of accumulated environmental ambience (i.e. surf and wind), very much sounding like those heard on his The Air In The Sand release. The ominous shadows and oceanic rumbles which Potter has employed so successfully in Nurse With Wound, Monos, and Ora act as the glue holding the entire composition together, with Keith Rowe's small yet growling machines and vibrating strings only occasionally emerging from the din. Mouldycliff's contributions are a little harder to pinpoint, as we're honestly not all that familiar with his work (sorry Phil!). The disc itself is a wonderful listen, and certainly continues along what Mouldycliff intends, as "pathways through the assembled clutter as if exploring a debris field on the bottom of the sea."
Last year we highlighted a fab comp of groovy vintage musique "Made In France", now here's another volume of similar sounds put out by the same label, Magic, who've also brought us many other excellent, if budget-lookin', French ye ye/pop/psych reissues from Pussy Cat to Rene Joly. This 70+ minute disc's got 22 tracks, with an assortment of gems to be found among 'em if your tastes run to this sort of commercial yet cool stuff from French hipsters of the psychedelic era. Much of this is in the mode of orchestrated soft pop and dramatic balladry, with even the occasional music hall novelty, but it can rock out, too - for instance, the heavy groovin' stoner psych of "Come Along" by Les Variations (which previously appeared as one of the most badass bonus tracks on Magic's now out of print Nador/Take It Or Leave It double cd we listed a while back).
Less rockin' but equally rad are the backwards beats and hollowly piping flute of Time Machine's "Bird In The Wind", a weirdly haunting instrumental, mellow and melancholic... Elsewhere, Titanic funk it up on "Macumba", and Zoo mix fuzz and horns on their catchy "Hard Times Good Times". Another hit with us (and probably any Zombies fans in the house) is Classical M's "Such A Lovely Voice", which we already knew from their Bad Guys anthology. Another one that's sort of familiar is by paradoxically named Anarchic System, because they do an odd version of Gershon Kingsley's sixties Moog hit "Pop Corn"!
This collection's sundry other tracks range from the wonderfully moody n' gloomy, to upbeat bubblegum, providing plenty of both polished progginess and pop chart cheesiness, often at the same time. And all of it, charmingly, very much of its times. The full lineup of groups and singers, omitting those already mentioned: Total Issue, Wallace Collection, Jupiter Sunset, Alan Jack Civilization, Century, Trianglophone, Georges & Michel Costa, Holly Guns, Jo Sony Avern System, Pop Tops, Joel Dayde, Peter Haller, Laurent, Charles Brutus McClay, The American Breed, and Marvin, Welch & Farrar.
What more do you need to know!?! It's a compilation called GRIND BASTARDS. Subtitled "For The Grind Freaks". Released on the label run by legendary Japanese grinders Unholy Grave. And check out the band list. Tons of killer groups, and a whole bunch new to us, almost all heavy and brutal and kick ass: Mortalized, Insect Warfare, Butcher ABC, Unholy Grave (of course), Exgreed, Disgust, Top Breeder, Motiveless, Gods Of Grind, Little Bastard, Red, 48, Gate, Spiral and more.
Plenty of downtuned chug, furious blasts, growled cookie monster grunts, wild hysterical shrieks, insane chaotic riffing, most songs clocking in at under two minutes, many of those under one, short sharp jagged blasts of grinding fury, with some songs super well produced and heavy as fuck, others blown out almost Japanoise sounding boombox blur, a handful of crusty D-beat pounding, super varied, but super cohesive, heavy as hell, should totally hit the spot for punk rockers and metalheads alike, as long as you like it ultra heavy, ultra sick and blazing fast. The biggest surprise for us, is probably the 51 second long Mortalized track, "Nailing Descartes To The Wall", which just might be the catchiest minute of grind we've ever heard. Similar to how Jon Chang's new bands incorporate eighties metal and crazy power metal hooks into impossible complex grind, Mortalized sound a little like Iron Maiden on 78, or maybe some super catchy 3 minute pop single spun as fast as it will go, the guitars raging and soaring, the hooks undeniable, even some leads, but that main melody has been stuck in our head nonstop. The only solution seems to be listening to that track over and over again. Which we're still doing. And it does seem to be working. We just. Can't. Ever. Stop.
Packaged in cool fold out punk rock sleeve style with each band getting their own little square for artwork and liner notes.
MISSISSIPPI Alert! MISSISSIPPI Alert! MISSISSIPPI Alert!
Thankfully there is someone putting out these killer comps of little heard blues and gospel on vinyl, the way they were made to be heard. Such loving attention paid to selection, flow and packaging, so thoughtfully put together. Songs so lost, coated in light crackle that only adds to their warm, melancholic and far-off mystery. We can't get enough of these records, and this one is no exception! Another amazing compilation of rare, obscure southern blues dealing with sex, death and loss. Featuring Cryin Sam Collins, Henry Spaulding, Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy, Buster Johnson, Little Hat Jones, Robert Wilkins, Willie Baker, Blind Blake, Louie Lasky, Charlie McCoy, and Joe Callicott. Our favorite cuts are by the female singers including the incomparable Memphis Minnie, two tracks by Lottie Kimbrough (The Kansas City Butterball), and a sad lament by Elvie Thomas. Plenty of tracks brim with sexy suggestiveness and fast living, such as "Can't I Do It For You?" " How You Want Your Rolling Done?", "Wayward Girl Blues" and "Keep It Clean", while others deal with loneliness and dying: "Lonesome Road", "Undertaker Blues", "Motherless Child Blues" "Rope Stretchin' Blues" and "Fare Thee Well Blues". Only in the blues do living and dying interweave with such incredibly sublime intensity! Go Mississippi!
Another awesome sampler highlighting some of the best tracks that Rhythm & Sound / Basic Channel have unearthed in their continuing series of vinyl reissues of the premier '80s label for reggae sounds, Wackies, produced in the legendary Black Arc studio with Lloyd Barnes behind the board. While Soul Jazz has done a great job of sharing the wealth of the amazing sounds that came from Studio One in the '60s and '70s, there hasn't been as much reissue action documenting all the great warm and rich reggae that came out of the '80s. However, this compilation improves matters, including gems by some well known artists like Horace Andy (whose voice could melt an iceberg), Johnny Clark, and Sugar Minott, as well as more obscure yet totally great artists like Itopia, Jah Carlos, Max Romeo and Bullwackies All Stars (whose dub sounds we've fallen in love with - we hope to review their great recently reissued full length very soon!).
Such a nice mixture of dub delights, lovers rock, and soulful reggae. All these tracks were only released on 12"s which are pretty hard to find and this marks the first time that any of them are on cd. Great stuff!
Not sure when/where/how we first found out about Visitors and their 1974 self-titled album, but for the prog lovers here at Aquarius, it was love at first sight - literally, check out that cover art! A hyperencephalic space alien standing in a glowing doorway, the open door labeled "Sesame". The back cover is pretty freaky too: the disembodied heads of members of Visitors floating in front of an atomic mushroom cloud that's exploding out of a giant egg! And, yes, the music lived up to these silly-strange images. The album's heavy opener, "Dies Irae", with backwards effects, faux-Gregorian chant, wild synth flourishes, and wailing psych guitar, among other outre ingredients, is a grand(iose) introduction to the Visitors' over-the-top prog pleasures, coming off like a hybrid of Magma and an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. The tracks that follow maintain the same majestic/eccentric momentum. Imagine our favorite, craziest '70s Italian prog (Osanna, Area, Museo Rosenbach, etc.) meeting up with groovy orchestrations of a Serge Gainsbourg or Jean-Claude Vannier album. Visitors being in fact French, hence the latter comparisons.
Both Andee and Allan acquired copies of this cd for themselves as soon as they could, and always wanted to get it for Aquarius too, but only recently did we manage to contact the label in France and were able to order a bunch of this reissue to highlight. At the same time, we also finally figured out that a lot of AQ customers might be interested in this for another, specific, reason - Visitors was an exploitation-prog project of musical mastermind Jean-Pierre Massiera, whose surreal pop productions were the subject of two recent, quite popular collections we've been selling: Psychoses: Freakoid (1963-1978) and Psychoses: Discoid (1974-1981). Visitors actually appeared on both volumes, with "Flatwoods Story" (from this album) on Freakoid and "V-i-s-i-t-o-r-s" on Discoid.
Now's your chance to hear, from start to finish, an entire cult sci-fi concept album as envisioned by Massiera, unabashed prog bombast that's often haunting yet groovy at the same time. Although, at the time of its release, Visitors was a one-off album intended a cash-in on the progressive rock fad of the early '70s, its sci-fi concept probably not meant to be taken seriously either, nowadays it seems as valid, and certainly as enjoyable, as any other of the fabulous prog excesses of its era.
The cd booklet with this reissue includes photos, and liner notes in English giving a detailed history of Massiera's career, and includes full credits for all the twenty musicians and singers who participated, left anonymous on the original release. Among them, you'll find a future member of Magma, virtuoso violinist Didier Lockwood. And we were interested to learn that the "deep vocals" that occasionally pop up on the album were by Massiera himself.
Man, we have the best customers, they play in kick ass bands, they put out killer zines, they run clubs, and cool bars, and are awesome writers, we're constantly impressed and amazed. One such customer is Jeremy Wallach, who (as it says on the back of his book) is a musician, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and an assistant professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and who has just published a book on popular music in Indonesia, which seemed like a total aQ appropriate book if there ever was one.
We only just started it, but figured we oughta get it reviewed and listed so some of you folks could get your hands on it sooner rather than later (we're also reading the Anarcho-crust book reviewed elsewhere on this list!). Modern Noise Fluid Genres is a study, as mentioned above, of Indonesian popular music from the years 1997-2001, viewed through the exploration of recording studios, record stores, neighborhoods, universities, clubs and venues, with a focus on how access to global music has been a boon to creative music making, rather than a hindrance. It's definitely academic, plenty of cultural theory, but also plenty of anecdotes and interviews, visits to video shoots and classrooms, malls and campuses, and discussions with students and musicians, all with an eye on the globalization of music, and how specifically Indonesia fits into that trend.
Includes tons of photos, drawings, lyrics, appendices, a glossary, and also a cd, which includes a handful of tracks demonstrating the various types and styles of modern Indonesian music.
We're definitely digging it so far, and it seems like essential reading for folks who have been digging the Sublime Frequencies series, which is likely MOST of you!
We noticed we still had a handful of these Boris rarities, and saw some popping up on eBay so we figured we would relist them in case anyone was still in the market for a pricey, exquistely designed 7" with lots of glamorous photos of Wata from Boris!!!
Here's our review from when we listed these a while back:
We took pre-orders on this ultra limited Boris rarity, but we managed to get a handful of extra copies, so for those folks who forgot to preorder, or folks who are only hearing about this now, here's your chance (however brief) to nab one of these�
As with all Boris related stuff, this 7" photo book combo looks gorgeous. A 7"x7" softcover book, the cover a thick textured cream colored paper, the title embossed on the front cover, wrapped in a full color vellum obi, the text printed in metallic silver, with color photos of Wata from Boris and the members of the band sharing the split, Ai Aso. The book itself is nothing but glamour shots of the various women, full body shots, close ups of their faces, very fashion magazine looking, the pictures slightly distressed, the women posed in front of washed out colored backdrops. Strange, but heck, the pictures are quite nice, and the women are of course quite lovely, so who can complain.
But here is a 7", and presumably, that's the main reason to pick this up (right?), it features Wata and Ai Aso each doing a cover, Ai Aso cover King Crimson's "Islands" and Wata covers Masashi Kitamura's "Angel" which we had never heard (or heard of) before.
Ai Aso take "Islands" and let it unfurl softly and sweetly, a blissy dreamy drift, with hushed vocals over shimmering guitars, the drums are the focal point, way up in the mix and driving the song, almost martial at times, while at others shuffling along side the glimmering guitars. Very skeletal, but strangely lush at the same time and really quite pretty.
Don't let the fact that the flipside is credited to Wata fool you, as the lineup is essentially all of Boris, AND Michio Kurihara. So it's basically the Rainbow lineup, with the addition of some other guy playing Mellotron! The track is gentle and tranquil, a soft focus psych folk, the guitars are simply strummed, the vocals and sweet and ethereal, the percussion is essentially just a tambourine, that is until the very end, when the band launch into a slow burning psychedelic freakout, not sure if it's Wata or Kurihara, but the guitar soars majestically, howling and screeching, wailing wildly over the dreamy strum underneath. Definitely sounds like it could have come from the same sessions that produced Rainbow, which is most definitely not a bad thing.
LIMITED TO 1500 COPIES.
Now on Vinyl!
We listed the latest record by Texas folk pop ensemble the Weird Weeds a few lists back, and everybody dug it like crazy, so we got in touch with the band and got a handful of their first record, Hold Me. Which is just as good!
A dizzying blend of random ethereal popness and shimmery dreamlike folkiness with a healthy heaping of arty angularity. Slightly confusional and a little schizophrenic, but the Weird Weeds' off kilter playfulness is exactly what makes this combo so totally appealing. Fun and freaked out, but always soft and dreamy, even at their most convoluted.
One side of the band's sound is all fluttery flutes and swoonsome strings, little bits of strum and twang wrapped into perfect little nuggets of sunshine-y West Coast pop. A little country, a little hippy, all super sun dappled with plaintive vocals and simple minor key strumming.
The other side of their sound is a much more obtuse assemblage of stumbling drums, twinkling guitar harmonics, lots of tangled squiggly almost metallic guitar solos over wildly strummed acoustic guitars, a constant angular Deerhoof art-rockiness that perfectly plays to the interaction between super high sad boy vocals and dreamy angelic female vocals. While these guys are definitely far out, and these songs are not at all straight forward, the weirdness never overshadows their pop sense, which makes Hold Me a total delight for pop kidz and artrock nerds alike.
Some of you must remember the Simon Wickham-Smith disc Twofordancin', a sort of out of left field blast of house-y trip hop electronica. Which threw us for a loop at first, but ended up getting crazy play in the store.
So when we heard about this new collection, a triple disc spanning 8 years, because of the title we were maybe expecting more of the same. And we got it. The opening track here, from way back in 1999, is a nearly half hour jam, all simple percussion, and house music whistle, looped and hypnotic, again it takes a second, but once you get into it, you're hooked. In the background is a thick distorted whir, there are occasional bits of strange effects and processed vocals, but for the most part it's a killer stripped down groove.
But surprisingly, that's it for the groove, the rest of disc one jumps to the 2000s, and we're back on more familiar ground. "Sealight", from 2000, is a barely moving shimmering whisper of a song, high end streaks smoothed into oceanic swells, everything glimmering and glistening, muted and minimal. Quite lovely. "The Horizontality Of Saskatchewan" (2202) is a strange gnarled guiatarscape, the riffs distorted and crumbling, sounding a bit like damaged bagpipes, or some lost Daniel Higgs jam, melodies lurching and threatening to fall apart, lots of whir and buzz, on closer listening maybe that's not a guitar but a pump organ, minimal percussion, very haunting and hypnotic. Track 4 is brand new, recorded this year, and is another super minimal dronescape, lots of glitch and click and whir, but all muted into a subtly pulsing melody, eventually building into a distorted blown out swirl of processed vocals, Eastern melodies, and thick grinding buzz.
The second disc begins with the warped warble of "Cool Memories" from 2004. a seasick backwards dreamworld of subtle buzz, mumbled voices, and a gorgeously woozy main melody. "Angels And Birds And The Coming Of Night" is the centerpiece of the second disc, recorded in 2004 as well, and clocking in at 45 minutes, an epic expanse of soft focus fuzz and billowing metallic drones, dense and lustrous, dark and dreamlike. The disc closes with 2005's "Cool Memories II", a sonic addendum to part one, the mumbled backwards swoon, now peppered with bits of glitch and smears of static.
The final disc in the set is a live set recorded earlier this year in Paris, a 48 minute stretch of high end minimalism, a flickering fluttering upper register electronic trill, oscillating endlessly, is spread out over almost the entire length of the entire performance, with subtle sonar like overtones and subtle low end throbs, until the flutter begins to fluctuate, and suddenly the track is a twisting and tangled squall of warped synth, blurred effects and processed vocals.
As always, packaged in that instantly recognizable Celebrate Psi Phenomenon wallpaper packaging. Inserts and liner notes for each disc, and as always, EXTREMELY LIMITED.
Every month, we look forward to a new issue of The Wire to enlighten and enthuse us about favorite and soon-to-be-favorite musical artists. This time, the UK (and world's) premiere print magazine of adventurous sounds that aren't too metal features Detroit techno legend Jeff Mills on the cover. Also: No Neck Blues Band. A primer on William S. Burroughs. James Plotkin doing the "Invisible Jukebox'. A scene report on Tehran. Christian Carter of Charalambides writes about Jandek's album covers. Tons of reviews, all the usual necessities. And plenty more. Yay!
Can we write a Wizar'd review without mentioning the weird unexplained apostrophe in their name? No we can't!
With that behind us, here's what we think about the latest lethargic lamentation let loose by these lords of lo-fi doom metal, down n' out and drowned in sorrow Down Under. Their new album, Infernal Wizardry (hey, shouldn't that be Infernal Wizar'dry??) features eight new, agonized outpourings of distorted dirge. Eight Sabby slabs of fuzz filled sludge, with spacey psychedelic lead guitar, trudging beats, and misery-evoking vox that vary from an Ozzyish warble to a deep slowed-down mumble to a more punkish shout. Fans of Saint Vitus, Reverend Bizarre, Electric Wizard and of course Black Sabbath are of course the sort of folks likely to become ensorcelled by the oozing audio of this Wizar'd. At least, those that can appreciate true, traditional doom at its most raw and primitive.
As serious and sincere as their music sounds (tracks like "Witchwither" and "Depressive Holiday" are truly moving, morose monuments), the Wizar'd obviously have a (drunken?) sense of humor too, judging by their slightly silly pseudonyms: Ol' Rusty Vintage Wizard Master is the vocalist and lead guitarist, Blackie the Crimson Heretic Of A Thousand Eyes plays bass, Iron Tyrant is on the drums, and Sir Nunn Piss handles the other guitar parts. Heck you've gotta have *some* fun, when you otherwise seem as negative and dejected as these suffering dudes do!
They pick up the pace a bit on the aggressive "Crushing Gothic Slime" (which, as we now realize, is NOT how they label their music, but rather an expression of animosity toward Goths) but mostly this is glacial and gloomy... culminating in the nearly 13 minute epic "The Megalomaniac". What we really like about these guys (besides the apostrophe) is how their poverty-stricken sound works towards the dual goals of doominess and drugginess. What Wizar'd lack in production, they make up for in feeling. It's old school doom done with the same fucked up aesthetic of our favorite bizarre, far underground black metal. Utterly, wretchedly recommend'd.
We're all big time Radiohead fans, and thus were pretty into RH frontman Thom Yorke's Eraser record, what could very well have been a proper Radiohead record, but instead turned out a more electronic stripped down gem, lush and dark and dreamy, his voice drifting ethereally over all manner of drift and buzz and skitter.
It seemed inevitable that some of the tracks would get remixed, and whattayaknow, soon there was indeed a serious of remix 12"s, and lo and behold, the remixes were almost better than the originals, the lineup of remixers featuring a who's who of aQ faves: Burial, The Bug, FourTet, The Field and more.
It's worth it for the Burial remix alone - murky and dark, the rhythms skittery and mechanical, plenty of distant whir and drone, thick squalls of buzzing dubstep bass. It has us wondering what that second Burial record would have sounded like had Yorke been picked to contribute all the vocals. Pretty amazing we'd guess. And yeah, while we can barely get ourselves to stop playing the Burial remix over and over, the rest of the disc is pretty excellent as well. Surgeon adds a thick glitchy house-y groove, and makes Yorke's mysterious humming the main melodic component. The Bug doesn't go all ragga like we expected, instead taking the 'hit' from that record, adding plenty of record crackle, and a super spare beat, rife with all sorts of old school filigree and lots of heavy crunchy bass. FourTet add all sorts of tribal rhythms, adding soft swoops of backwards melody, and a lush glimmering gauze over the whole song, letting the vocals soar WAY up top over the mix, the instrumental mix reminding us a bit of vintage Tortoise. The Field totally reinvent "Cymbal Rush" chopping it up into a gorgeous Oval like stuttery soft house, dizzying washed out and melodic, total Kompakt bliss, the original barely recognizable unless you know to listen for it, so good. Christian Vogel adds a heavy motorik beat, and a thick backdrop of processed chiming guitars, dipping the vocals in effects, the result very looped and lush and hypnotic. Modeselektor pull their track totally apart and reassemble it into a strange jagged stutterscape, glitchy and skittery, with warm fuzzy bass, super processed vocals, and some seriously twisted arrangements, quickly becoming another favorite mix. The Various remix finds the original chopped and looped, so it almost sounds like the signal is dropping out over and over, creating a woozy moody pulse, the melody fragmented and abstract. And finally, Christian Vogel has another go on the same track he remixed earlier, crafting a whole array of new beats, using just the barest bits of the original song for texture and melody, a killer choppy groove, with little flurries of glitchy skitter, bit for the most part, pretty minimal and hypnotic.
Definitely essential for the Burial mix, and The Field mix, but dig into all of these reimagined versions, and enjoy one of the very few remix records that is the perfect compliment to the original, as well being a fantastic record in its own right, one that just might be better than the original.
Of all of the many Zeitkratzer collaborations that have appeared to date, this one seemed the most unlikely. Sure, the amplified horns and screeching strings that came out of Zeitkratzer's orchestral interpretation of Metal Machine Music worked well in the sheer audacity of the project; but Zeitkratzer's polyphonous tonalities had mustered an engaging re-interpretation of John Duncan's work with a balance between grace and force. So, when taking on a collaboration with Carsten Nicolai, who is best known for his swaggering rhythms for pure tone and minuscule glitches as Alva Noto, we had to ask how this would work. Well, essentially, Nicolai has adapted his sound for Zeitkratzer, not the other way around, which might have been a real challenge for Zeitkratzer to attempt to adopt the thud and rumble of something like the Transall series. Instead, Nicolai and Zeitkratzer pursue long-form compositions, mostly for electronics, but occasionally with the assistance of a particular instrumental coloring from say a clarinet, a cello, or a piano. Each of the three pieces here were performed live, commissioned for this sound art festival or that in Europe. The first of which swarms around static-laden drones and crackling hiss which spirals around a Niblockian drone from a sustained clarinet, eventually a rhythmic undercarriage from a softly tapped piano ebbs against the slow-building arc of sound. The second piece seems to be staged from prepared piano, amplified televisions, and tone generators, offering another skeletal rhythm to the clinical frequencies. The third piece returns to the ideas of the first with the reprise of that piano, but here a semblance of a melody encroaches the slow-motion raga drone from low-thumbing electronics and rasping sustained strings. It's not all that far from another of Nicolai's storied collaborations, with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Both Zeitkratzer and Nicolai are guilty of playing it safe on these three pieces, but the results are striking and lovely nonetheless.
The gorgeous image of a stagecoach barreling down a mountain roadside, as if being watched by a crow perched in a fir tree, has great appeal to an imagination that begins listening the moment it beholds a record's cover. Unfortunately, the music inside this cover does not really correspond to what is evoked by that image.
Not quite so mysterious, or adventurous, this live recording, complete with polite audience applause and the pristine but cold high end of a digital room recording, is probably less satisfying than actually having been at the performance(s) that brought together Japanese improv psych shaman Keiji Haino and the German experimental chamber music outfit Zeitkratzer. The physicality of Keiji's input - his vocalizations and percussive noises - rescues Electronics (3) from the banality of the "noise" its liner notes make such a fuss about. Sometimes it's a bad idea to read the liner notes! Whether it's just very naive or, more annoyingly, a stab at self-important academic validation, the essay that accompanies this disc offers little to make Zeitkratzer's project any more exciting or "important". Some name-dropping - Levi-Strauss, Nietzsche, Bach, musique concrete, Carlyle, Dionysus, Susan McClary (?), Debussy, etc. - sprinkled amidst lines of academic jargon and just a bit of actual information about the "construction" of this music, and rehearsals behind this record (aren't there artists and bands spontaneously creating such 'noise' music all the time? Artists like Haino?) makes one wonder why they just didn't opt for a photo of the the ensemble's gig bags for the cover? Couldn't the liner notes have simply said that these musicians were stoked to jam with Haino, and really let their hair down??
Having said all that, liner notes aside, for any Haino fan, this may be worth the purchase just for the dramatic track 3 alone, the approximately 25-minute "Sinfonia", given the peaks of ecstatic beauty reached by Haino's noise-making therein... tracks 1 and 2, "Aria I" and "Aria II", are rather more typical of haunting, eerie-sounding 20th century classical, albeit with added extremity due to the Haino factor.
This is the third in a series of Zeitkratzer collaborations entitled Electronics, the other two featuring Carsten Nicolai and Terre Thaemlitz respectively, and thus this is the most "out there" of 'em all, being more about improvisation than composition, Haino himself (on guitar, Theremin, voice, drums...) the equal of the entire ensemble that's accompanying him (on tuba, trombone, clarinet, cello, drums, etc.).
And now that we're listening to the disc, rather than reading that cd booklet, we've gotta say we're also really digging the "bonus" track 4, a "Drum Duo" (presumably of Haino and one lucky Zeitkratzer member). Their freeform percussion blitz gets down to business without any of the highbrow posturing of the previous, larger scale pieces.
