We've loved Austrian black metal horde Abigor since we first heard them back in the nineties, their sound was total true kvlt blackness, every record, as grim and black as the last: Verwustung / Invoke the Dark Age, Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom), Opus IV, Supreme Immortal Art, Channeling the Quintessence of Satan, Satanized (A Journey Through Cosmic Infinity), every one of those a stone cold classic, at least to our ears, and then nothing for 6+ years, but something strange must have happened, because when they returned, with 2007's Fractal Possession, it was like a different band, with a new sound, a twisted, industrial avant blackness, that rubbed most black metallers the wrong way, tons of fans jumped ship, but not us, who expects a band to sound the same forever? Sort of how everybody seemed to hate the last 1349, it was too slow and experimental, people wanted more of the same. Well fuck it, folks who hated Fractal Possession are REALLY gonna hate Time Is The Sulphur In The Veins Of The Saint, and let em, cuz this is some serious fucked up, freaked out outsider electronic tinged avant black metal weirdness. It's hard to even describe, other than just going through the track part by part. Epic and sprawling and dizzyingly complex, a cacophony of voices and tangled melodies give way to some ambient drones, which in turn gives way to some pounding midtempo black metal, with weirdly effected vocals, TONS of weird effects, slipping into near silence, before exploding into some pumelling industrial blackness, but rife with wild squiggly leads, everything drops out except for those squiggles, some bizarre spoken word brings us right into what can only be described as a repeated almost hip hop style loop, before launching into some epic soaring power metal with harmonized lead guitars and blasting double kick, warbly basslines, arpeggiated melodies, thick synthesizer buzz, almost like dubstep, before the band spits out more churning chugging heaviness, and we're only halfway through the first song. Shall we go on?
Whirring black ambience leads into some Khold like midtempo metal, with minor key melodies, and super processed vox, finally exploding into some frenzied black metal freakout, before again blissing out into a haunting expanse of churning processed guitars, chant like vocals, some near silence, then some awesome stuttering grinding crunch, a sort of black metal but with deep crooned vox, and some weird industrial filigree not to mention wild warbly bass, fading out in a flurry of classic metal pound, only to then immediately launch into the second track / half of the record, which if anything is just s varied and far out and fucked up, the highlights being some super distorted buzzing blurscapery, some twisted almost punk sounding convoluted lurch and lumber, some incredibly dense and complex gnarled black metal blasts, culminating in a super trippy chanted vocal outro.
Fucking nuts, and totally genius, like mad metal scientist genius, not for the faint at heart, or the true grim hordes, this is for folks looking for the most twisted blackness they can find, technical, epic, and warped beyond all comprehension. Which in case you couldn't tell, means this is one of our new favorite records, and definite contender for weirdo black metal record of the year.
And while they last, we have the limited deluxe box version...
It's unclear what it is exactly that differentiates Aderlating from Gnaw Their Tongues, both are masterminded by mysterious noisemaker Mories, both feature garish frightening artwork, both feature extended wordy song titles like "And Thou Shall Breathe Sulfur As Last Breath" and "Travel The Fog As Death Reaping The Lands" and "The Ravenous Bloodlust Of Fallen Angels", and both bands are grim and blown out and epic and cacophonous and blackened and harrowing and loud as fuck. The key differences seem to be these: Aderlating is in fact a duo, whereas GTT is a one man band, and Gnaw Their Tongues is much more cinematic, and atmospheric, while Aderlating seems to be more dense and dark and layered.
Which is evidenced by the opening track here, a seemingly static wall of undulating layered dronemusic, the sound of 100 Sunroof!s playing simultaneously, a noise drenched ur-raga, a furious white hot sprawl of trancelike crumbling crunch, which over the course of nearly nine minutes goes from Merzbowian blast, to haunting black ambient creep, exploring all sorts of sonic mysteries in between. Devotional Hymns is a collection of sounds black and bleak, hymns perhaps, but to some fallen lord, grinding black shards collide with creaking ambient drifts, epic industrial wastelands, roiling, churning, every track a black hole of sound, when melody and light do escape, they are damaged, limping along, like some charred beast, some damaged machine, crawling through a soundscape of apocalyptic decay.
A few of the tracks here get rhythmic, sounding a bit like a blackened Wolf Eyes, a rotting sea of sounds supported by a rickety industrial skeleton, while others get almost black metal, but are so blurred and obscured that any riffage or blast beating, becomes blown out smears of grim sound, culminating in the hellish fury of the 12 minute title track, a sort of black industrial noise jam, that is simultaneously hypnotic and trancelike, filthy and raw, black and brutal. Incredible stuff as always.
Essential for Gnaw Their Tongues fans obviously, and anyone into buzzing black filth or crushing industrial black ambience. And these Shadowgraph cd-r's are in super swank digipaks, but are usually still quite limited, often to 100 or less, which means these will be gone before you know it...
Trondr Nefas, aka T.B., is probably better known in black metal circles for fronting Norwegian heavyweights Urgehal and Beastcraft, among others, but odds are that might be about to change with Angst Skvadron, a blackened bastard offspring, that while still black metal is so much more.
This is record number two from this post black metal trio, whose sound, if we had to describe it, would be something more like post space black prog. And were this easier to get, don't doubt that this would have been a shoo-in for Record of The Week. For some of us it's already Record Of The Year!
Employing the usual instruments, but with an incredible arsenal of vintage and classic keyboards and synths, even a Mellotron, to add all sorts of texture and weirdness to their grim black sound. Did we mention ghostly female vocals? Yeah, these guys are a strange proposition, but have maybe catapulted themselves right to the front of the line, that line being our favorite new black metal bands.
Just take record opener "Valium Holocaust" (great title), opening with a cloud or reverbed piano rumbles, before launching into a lumbering midtempo dirge, equal parts Ved Buens Ende, Khold and Voivod at 16 rpm, the guitars warped and crumbling, the riffs woozy, the rhythm peppered with toiling bells, and laced with little glimmering tangles of melody, and super melodic basslines, and of course some haunting female vocals, that make the track either sound like some black metal Argento soundtrack, or some blackened version of Hundred Sights Of Koenji, gorgeous and creepy and far out and spacey and totally mesmerizing.
The whole record is so close to NOT being black metal. The riffs are gnarled and not at all typical, sounding almost grungy at times, like a way more grim black Skin Yard, which is definitely a good thing.
There are moments of blackness for sure, but even then, the band seem dead set on subverting any sort of true kvlt cred they might otherwise be developing, by twisting the songs all up, whether it's adding Mellotron strings, and creating weird carnivalesque slowcore, or adding all sort of strange crooning vocals, or taking an otherwise black blast beat, and transforming it into a mathy stutter. The slow atmospheric bits are incredible, not just randomly quiet for a minute or two like most BM bands, these are fully formed bits of minimal moodiness, with lush tangled melodies, ghostly harmonies, thick wheezing organs, often giving way to spaced out blackened krautrock, all clean guitars, hazy clouds of reverb, rubbery Joy Division basslines, some full on whatthefuck post industrial lumber and crunch, with thick buzzy bass riffs, and streaks of static and hiss, all wound around some incredible black metal grooves, some of the best riffs we've heard in ages, that in other hands could be the basis for perfect pop songs, but here just infuse the blackness with a weirdly irresistible pop element, that helps make these songs totally weird, totally catchy, and completely genius.
The record finishes off with an unlikely three song salvo, some warm almost sunshiney softly strummed minimal pop, all brushed snares, soaring strings, major key melodies, a lush gauzy dream pop dronescape, that gives way to possibly the most mathy and convoluted track on the record, all super tangled riffage, octopoidal math rock drums, serpentine basslines, super heavy and harrowing, with tortured super effected tripped out vocals, culminating in heaving doomic crush, before finally finishing off with the weirdly melodic title track, a wistful minor key dirge, all clean chiming guitars, simple spare drumming, strings and flutes (or at least the Mellotron version), gorgeous and dreamy and softly psychedelic, an appropriately unlikely finish to one of the most unlikely 'black metal' records in recent memory. And quickly becoming our favorite...
ALSO ON VINYL!!
Erykah Badu is one of those singular artists who is able to create such a devotional and personal relationship with her listeners. Where New Amerykah Pt. 1 had a fiery political undertone, New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return Of The Ankh, is much more personal and relationship minded. But no matter what Erykah's songs are about, there is always a sense of authenticity and integrity that runs so strongly through them. In many ways this is the closest in sound and theme to her breathtaking debut Baduizm, as it shares a similar slow melting groove and such rich instrumentation that you just don't come by on many contemporary soul records. The amazing thing about Erykah Badu is how she is both so modern, futuristic yet an integral link to the history of powerful and spiritual soul. She doesn't rehash, or mimic, instead she's created a sound and style that is so totally her own.
New Amerykah Pt. 2 is as seductive as it is psychedelic. You can tell she has a deep love of pioneers like Ramp, The Rotary Connection, and Dorothy Ashby, but she has learned from her deep love of true hip-hop how to take from her influences yet create something totally new and unique out of it. There is no one like Erykah Badu around, she has proven she is a musical visionary, and her live shows only further prove that she is the real deal, capable of creating magic with her music that hits the soul in such deep and true ways. She also stands out in the way she is still very committed to the artform of the album. From start to finish this is a record that takes you on a journey that you want to revisit over and over again. The thing that makes Erykah Badu albums so remarkable is how they slowly seep into your subconscious. They are never about the latest trends or a quick fun ride, instead they are the kind of records you turn to at those crucial moments of your life and become a narrative that becomes as much a part of your journey as it is hers. These are songs that empower, comfort and challenge. Once again Erykah Badu has proven to be one of the strongest and most unique musical voices of our time!
No, not the Mississippi Sheiks... this here is the Beale Street Sheiks, from Tennessee, comprised of legendary Memphis bluesman Frank Stokes and one Dan Sane. Those familiar with Stokes should know what's in store: prime Memphis blues with amazing rhythmic guitar playing and a powerful, highly emotive vocal delivery. The songs here make use of forceful jumping rhythms that are bluesy for sure, but also reminiscent of ragtime and other old time music. These songs certainly indicate why Stokes is recognized as such a force in the Memphis Blues, and the presence of Sane's guitar playing makes this duo sound pretty much unstoppable. The way the two lock in together implies an innate and unique understanding of the music, no wonder Stokes has been imitated by so many throughout the years. But this is the original source and another welcome addition to Monk's rapidly expanding catalog of the essentials.
We've been waiting for this one for a while. The first time we heard the masterful playing of Debashish Bhattacharya was on his majestic and mind blowing Calcutta Slide Guitar album, a record which became an absolutely treasured all time favorite around here. Not only a master of Indian slide guitar, Bhattacharya also has the ability to infuse his playing with such truly transcendent emotion. It was a record that really felt like some magical amalgamation of Ravi Shankar and John Fahey. It's been several years since that release, but we had hoped something new might be on the horizon, as he performed live in San Francisco last year, a show that totally left us spellbound. It also made so much sense that when we looked around the audience, it was filled with so many of the Bay Area's best drone and bliss-out minded musicians, it was a little like seeing the teacher school his pupils.
O Shakuntala! is just as sublime and enchanting as Calcutta Slide Guitar was. This time out Bhattacharya merges two very classic Indian music traditions, Kanatic music from the South and Hindustani music from the North. But what makes his playing so special is that whether you have a rich knowledge of Indian music or are a total novice it doesn't matter at all, as he is able to cut through to the music's core and create an intimacy and intensity through his playing that is really the closest to absolute pure beauty we've heard in recorded form. Patient, slowly evolving, and with such innovation which most certainly elevates Bhattacharya to some entirely other level, a master among masters. He's backed by three percussionists on O Shakuntala!, including his brother on tabla, who completely blew us away when we saw them perform live. Some amazing genes that family must have!
The only negative thing we have to say about this disc has nothing to with the music, but there is no denying the cover art is pretty bad. Makes it seem like it must be some cheesy fusion record you would get at a store that sells incense and mood rings. But luckily it doesn't reflect the totally entrancing and stunning sounds inside. Highest of recommendations!
Lately we've been raving a lot about some cool New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) reissues. Ferinstance, there was Wolfbane a few weeks back, Jameson Raid last time, and this list we've got two: this one, Bleak House, and also Pagan Altar, below. And we're gonna tell you they're awesome. But, you might ask, what's the big deal about the NWOBHM anyway, why are we (and other discerning metal fans) so into it? Well, it's 'cause these NWOBHM bands, both the big-to-middling ones (Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Samson, Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Grim Reaper, etc.) and the more obscure, like the ones we've been listing lately, had SONGS. In a lot of ways, the NWOBHM was the last hurrah of heavy metal as song-based rock music. Sure, it also laid the groundwork for a lot of other more extreme metal genres that took off in the '80s, speed metal and thrash (Metallica was all about the NWOBHM), black metal (Venom!), and even the extreme glam of LA hair metal, which had songs too, yeah, but often poofy pop ones, whereas NWOBHM was hard ROCK most definitely. Not to make too much of a point of it, but we feel a lot of these one-shot wonders from the NWOBHM, kids who made a killer 7" and were never heard from again, are the sort of thing that appeals to us in the same way '60s garage rock nuggets do, or early '70s proto-metal psych, or '77 punk, they're just damn good catchy rock n' roll songs, heavy ones, that you can't deny. And, like in the '60s, there were a LOT of great little bands writing now-forgotten gems. It was a real phenomenon, and that's why we get so stoked about the NWOBHM, ok?
Anyway, that brings us to this, Bleak House, a band who released just two now-collectable 7" eps, Rainbow Warrior (1981) and Lions In Winter ('82). Those two account for seven of the 20 tracks here, the disc being rounded out with live tracks recorded in 1980. The band actually was formed as teenagers back in 1972, though, and these guys, like a lot of the NWOBHM stuff we've recently been reviewing, very much have a '70s, almost proto-metal vibe to 'em.
Bleak House are perhaps best known for the very first track here, "Rainbow Warrior", which has a riff that may or may not have been ripped off by admitted NWOBHM fanatics Metallica in their song "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" five years later, most likely inadvertently. Bleak House can't really complain, they've probably gotten more publicity over the years from that than anything. Great song, though, for which they deserve their due. And others here, such as "Isandhlwana" and "Down To Zero", are equally good. Classy, heavy, melodic, with memorable riffing and wailing, majestic vocals. And a haunted, vintage, British vibe to match their Dickensian appellation. Furthermore, there's some moments (like in "Flight Of The Salamander") that surprise with an almost anachronistic indie-rock jangle, or hint of such anyway.
It's a shame they never got to make a proper full length album, but what we have here is quite worthwhile, with the extensive live material as more than just a bonus - it looks to be a complete show, and includes versions of only three of the songs from the 7"s, the rest having never been documented in the studio. While rough and distorted to some extent, it still sounds pretty good. And you gotta give their singer a lot of credit for really going for it, even when it seems like maybe he's just about tapped out. Turn it up, close your eyes, hoist a pint, bang your head, and you can pretend you're one of the punters at an actual NWOBHM gig back in the day.
The jewel case comes with a Union Jack-adorned obi, and the cd booklet contains a band history as well as the original graphics from their 7"s, vintage color photos, and also reproductions of some old gig fliers.
Note: Buried By Time And Dust also released this collection on 180 gram vinyl, we sold out of 'em already though, we might be able to get more but we'll see, you can ask if you're interested...
All most folks will probably need to know is that Alex Bleeker And The Freaks features a bunch of the guys from Real Estate, and the sound is a bit like a less twisted, more groovy, woozy, jammy Real Estate. But first you have to make it past the cover art, which as we discuss briefly in the review of the Frat Dad 7" elsewhere on this list, features what might be Underwater Peoples weirdo aesthetic, a sort of jock / dude / bro thing, the Frat Dad 7" features two bro-looking dudes doing karaoke, and this record features all the Freaks, poolside, in sweaters, and lost of flip flops, a little dog, plenty of khaki, collared shirts, sweaters, Dad style leather jackets. Hard to tell whether it's a put on, or if these guys are just in fact regular Joes, who just make music, when they're not doing whatever it is they do in their normal lives. It doesn't really matter, it's just the first thing that catches your attention.
The music though, sounds a bit 'regular guy' too, not in a bad way, but unlike the distorted lo-fi weirdness of Real Estate, the sound of AB&TF is more straight ahead rock, somewhere between the lugubrious country of Palace, with the tangled leads of Neil Young, a little Grateful Dead too, plenty of strum and jangle and shuffle, loads of tangled guitar melodies, the occasional psychedelic shred freakout, but for the most part, loping and strummy and laid back, a little druggy, but not lysergic, more just sort of fuzzy and baked. Definitely nice to listen to, but maybe not far out enough for folks who dig other UP bands like Real Estate or Ducktails...
New York doommongers Bloody Panda return with full length #2, this one courtesy of the always rad Profound Lore label. The band specializes in a style of glacial doom sounding like it was recorded in an enormous cathedral in the dead of night. Funereal keyboards and subsonic bass run alongside lumbering drums that put everything into a spiraling trance as the downtuned guitars puke out overwhelmingly negative sounding riffs. Then, there's the kicker, Bloody Panda's unassuming vocalist Yoshiko Ohara, whose beautiful and clear voice can just as easily switch from sweet croon to Yoko Ono howl to a throat ripping banshee scream to a guttural demon bark. Her super bleak lyrics focus on all the various aspects of mental instability that doom bands know and love, like a fever induced nightmare where Bloody Panda is the house band. Ohara's awesome and disturbing artwork perfectly mirrors the sounds within Summon, with lots of black space and faceless figures shrouded in slivers of hazy color. There are certainly some similarities to Neurosis' more, ahem, "tribal" moments, while the band's almost goth sensibility, not to mention the female vocals and organ, bring to mind Asva, but there is enough other stuff going on to make Bloody Panda stand out. This is only made clearer by the accompanying dvd, featuring a video for the 21 minute motherfucker of a song, "Miserere". Filmed by the band members themselves in various parts of Brooklyn in addition to shots taken in Indonesia, the dvd offers a stunning visual enhancement to Bloody Panda's sonic assault.
Debut record from these Greek avant black metal warriors, oddly named after a redwoods retreat near here that should be familiar to the conspiracy-minded, whose sound is equal parts midtempo Burzumic buzz, furious blackened blast and gnarled experimental blackness, which means, awesome!
Five long tracks that slip from pounding primitive crush to insectoid frenzy and back again, with a sound that definitely harkens back to the Norwegian elite, the riffs epic and majestic, the vocals a gravelly demonic howl, the drumming crushing and intricate, the band deftly balancing their two sides. Pounding away relentlessly, before launching into a blazing blast at the drop of a dime, only to screech to a halt, and lurch right back into the pound, often shifting gears even more, slipping into some seriously doomy plod, or sprawling out into some weirdly melodic post-BM meander, but always finding their way back to the trancelike buzz.
The record finishes with the Deathspell-ish
"Drowning In The Roar Of A Sinking World", a 12+ minute, post rock, black metal hybrid, loping and lurching, the riffs angular and atonal, the song a woozy waltz, the band spitting out intense little squalls of rapid fire double kick and grinding buzz, the track slows down even further eventually, becoming downright doomy, the vocals getting full on Popeye / Immortal, a hellish croak, the guitars getting more and more seasick and psychedelic, until they launch into an epic, blasting, midtempo, melodic outro.
Super swank packaging, 6 panel black on gold digipak, featuring super creepy evil artwork from Justin Bartlett, who among other things, designed an aQ t-shirt not too long ago. LIMITED TO 1000 copies.
Suitcase Full Of Blues collects the recorded works of Ishman Bracey, one of the more obscure Delta bluesmen whose work nonetheless comes highly recommended. Bracey ran in the same circle as Tommy Johnson, whose Cool Drink Of Water Blues (also issued on Monk) we reviewed last list. As with Johnson, many of Bracey's recordings also feature the guitar and mandolin talents of Charlie McCoy, which definitely helped to flesh out some of Bracey's ideas. Four of the songs here are previously unissued recordings ("Leavin' Town Blues", "Brown Mama Blues", "Trouble Hearted Blues", and "The Four Day Blues") featuring just Bracey, and while these tracks are good and provide an interesting look into his process, it is the versions with McCoy's talents added where everything falls into place. Also like Johnson, Bracey recorded for Victor and Paramount, which was notorious for sub par sound quality. The Paramount recordings make up the second lp, and yes, they are a little rough around the edges, but not enough to destroy the quality of the songs themselves, which also feature Charlie Taylor on piano and Kid Ernest Michall on clarinet (along with Bracey, this lineup was known as the New Orleans Nehi Boys). Throughout the course of both records, a fairly diverse array of styles is on display, often showing off Bracey's progress and his adaptability. His adept picking style and vocal technique, a nice slow drawl not quite as gruff as some of the other delta bluesmen, are really great on their own, but collaborations make up the bulk of the material, and the material with the Nehi Boys is particularly strong. The songs give off a nice, drunk sort of feeling and sound like a bunch of close knit musicians bashing tunes out for fun, which often betrays the bleakness of the songs.
Once again, Monk delivers, making this a highly welcome addition to everyone's collection.
There is something so intimate about Bill Callahan's music. Whether recording under his name or his old Smog moniker, his songs evoke ghosts of memories, intense emotions, and such literate insights into the human condition. So a live record from Callahan actually makes a lot of sense. In some ways it seems strange to see him play in a hall full of people, as you want his songs sung directly to you in your own world. Rough Travel For A Rare Thing allows just that, a spot on live performance captured on tape and made for your private listening pleasure, on your turntable alone or with that special someone. Callahan's songs have a way of always cutting to the core, there is no questioning his integrity and singular voice. He's a story teller, a musician, and a force of nature. There is something commanding and immediate about his voice. In many ways he is like this generation's Leonard Cohen, with the ability to create songs that are both sensual, unnerving, sometimes bleak and always raw in their emotion. For this show, he plays songs from his Smog past and from what would be his first record under his own name. Stripped down and to the point, showing that his songs can be stripped down to a sparse statement that can evoke so much feeling. A total must have for Callahan/Smog fans.
It's strange that Miami's Capsule managed to remain so below the radar, their grinding, short attention span math rock metal core post prog weirdness seems tailor made for folks looking for extreme obscure heaviness. We raved about their full length Blue, a dizzying chunk of million parts a minute chug/crunch/howl/shred/grind, a furious onslaught of extreme heaviness, but also surprisingly extreme tunefulness, summing their sound up pretty succinctly as 'grindmetal Polvo', that classic twisted math rock / post rock sound, complex rhythms, woozy off kilter chords, buried vox, lots of texture and mood, but sped up, super charged and blown out.
This lp collects all of the pre-Blue material, demos, splits, tour eps, cassettes, and amazingly it plays pretty much like a proper full length. Like Blue, but a bit more raw, a bit less polished, their ADD-core still fully intact, but with even more melody than the full length, still loads of stop / start lurching tempos, tangled gnarled riffage, blasting bursts of pummel countered with lots of cool, more restrained post rockisms, with the added strangeness of weird group vocals, not harmonies exactly, but it does sound like the whole band is singing simultaneously, which definitely gives the sound a super unique vibe.
Again not sure why these guys aren't huge, if you dig Dillinger Escape Plan, Hayaino Daisuke, Converge, Coalesce, Cavity, then Capsule should definitely be required listening.
Incredible packaging too, super nice design, thick colored vinyl, and yeah, probably WAY limited.
Even dating back to the days when he was known as Manitoba, Dan Snaith's music has always been constantly evolving, changing and growing. He's never made the same record twice, and with the latest outing under his Caribou moniker he's probably made the most drastic stylistic change yet, and with the absolute greatest results!
Swim is a much more dance minded record then his last fine outing, Andorra, which was all about psych pop bliss. He's switched things up, using the same rich coloration that always marks his sound but bringing in new and different influences. This time out it sounds like he's been spending a great deal of time with many of the wonderful Arthur Russell releases, and with as we suspect Russell as his guide, has truly understood how to merge the worlds of avant pop and dance floor freedom. With an almost house-like sound done so totally right, he's made one of the most urgent, immediate and enjoyable records of the year. Think Arthur Russell reconstructed by Four Tet, Hot Chip, Junior Boys, and The Whitest Boy Alive and you start to get an idea of the overall sound of Swim. But what has always put Snaith ahead of the pack is that even though he tends to explore different sounds and styles, he always has a knack for writing great songs. It's never style over substance. What makes Caribou so awesome is that he's equally invested in his continual reinvention and explorations of different sounds as much as he is in crafting fucking great tunes. Record of the year contender for sure!
We sold tons of the last Carlton Melton full length, Pass It On. In fact we even sold a copy to J. Mascis who made it his top favorite record of 2009. No small feat, there! So the dudes are on a roll, and just before their first big tour, they release this awesome split with the equally heavy Empty Shapes from Delaware.
The Carlton Melton side is two tracks. The first, "Call and Response" is nearly side-loooong and begins with a heavy rumble of monolithic sludge eventually progressing into a slow wave of burnt-out blues riffage a la early Comets on Fire, that churns and steeps into a gnarly brew of molten fuzz. The closer, "Purer", is more cosmic and dreamy, built on a layer of percolating synth drones that give way to a more uplifting space rock jam trajectory.
This is the first we've heard from Empty Shapes, a 5 piece from Delaware, who contribute 3 tracks to their side. The first, "MLK" is a sprawling cloud of noise a la Bardo Pond, levitating around a repeating head-nodding riff with all kinds of instrumentation stretching the form and shape of the murky haze. "Hell of a Night" and "Lord" bring vocal elements into the works, but heavily effected and damaged, sometimes emotive yet incomprehensible channeling a primitive psych-blues through some New Zealandish free-rock space clutter!
Limited to just 300 on brown and white swirled vinyl! Dope!
What do you get when you mix Bay Area grind sludge noise rock sonic deconstructionists Burmese with local howling heavies Kowloon Walled City? You might guess something heavy? Brutal? Punishing? Pummeling? You would think. But this strange hybrid does in fact exist, and is called Child's Wife, and probably better described as tripped out, psychedelic, druggy, electronic, and heck even poppy!
Even we were confounded, we were sort of expecting some downtuned crush, something harsh and hellish, but heck, these guys get enough of that in their day jobs. We always wonder why the hell folks feel compelled to start new bands that sound exactly like their old bands anyway. So in that sense, it should maybe come as no surprise that Child's Wife sound NOTHING like either Burmese OR Kowloon Walled City. Instead, it's a twisted drum machine driven, psych pop of sorts. Lysergic and druggy, looped and woozy, but definitely pop. Guitars crunch and buzz, even jangle here and there, but are not metallic, not in the least, the rhythms are electronic, and skitter and pulse, and the vocals, well, the vocals are the focal point, much of the time at least, a distorted, reverbed croon, surprisingly melodic, the songs in some ways reminiscent of the poppiest Butthole Surfers moments, with a little Residents mixed in, a little industrial crunch and clatter, plenty of new wave / cold wave vibes, all mixed with a little, wait for it... XTC, yep, you heard us, sounds fucked and bizarre and impossible, and maybe it is, but it's also pretty cool. Twisted and tweaked, but definitely cool.
Probably not what most Burmese / KWC fans are looking for, but any one in the market for some freaky, outsider, psychedelic, noise rock new wave weirdness, well, this is definitely FOR YOU.
MISSISSIPPI ALERT! MISSISSIPPI ALERT! MISSISSIPPI ALERT!
After the awesome Chin Chin 7" we reviewed a while back, we were psyched to discover that Mississippi was teaming up with Slumberland to bring us this, Swiss all girl post punk outfit Chin Chin's 1985 full length, Sound Of The Westway.
When we reviewed the single, we mentioned that this Swiss combo would appeal to folks into recent girl groups like The Girls At Dawn, Black Tambourines, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls or their early eighties predecessors, Girls At Our Best, Shop Assistants, Bow Wow Wow or Lilliput (who came from the same Swiss scene as Chin Chin). And that definitely still holds true, even more so in fact, the full length finds the band way more polished and poppy, reminding us more of groups like Fuzzbox and the Belle Stars, not as urgently punk, more sort of pogo-y and poppy, the guitars thick and fuzzy, and of course jangly, lots of sweet harmonies, if one didn't know better, one might be forgiven for assuming this was in fact a new Slumberland signing, who like many of today's bands, are simply channeling the spirits of girl groups past. And listening to this now, boy would this sound pretty perfect right next to that Pains Of Being Pure At Heart record... which of course means RECOMMENDED!
Nice full color sleeve, with a 12" x 12" insert, and lengthy liner notes on the history of the band. And as with all Mississippi stuff, probably pretty limited...
We never really thought about Indiana as a hotbed for blackened doom-ed sludge, but all it takes really is one band to change that, and by the sounds of When All Became None, that band just might be Coffinworm, whose sound is equal parts Unearthly Trance and Eyehategod with a healthy dose of black metal mixed in. Crusty, filthy, raw, punk as fuck, but WAY metal, super dynamic and melodic, there's really not much to like here.
The first song alone, lays it all out for you, after a super aggro, stop/start intro, the band lurch into some seriously detuned doom, laced with howled vox, woozy spidery guitar melodies, and downtuned chug, before transforming into some midtempo melodic post metal, occasionally interrupted by blown out blackened blasts and stumbling doomic breakdowns. The vocals are incredible, a sort of crusty punk black metal hybrid, the guitars are thick and dense, the riffs epic and heavy, with plenty of groove, every song a swirling psychedelic cloud of sonic bong smoke, an ever shifting hybrid of doom metal, crust punk, sludge - but also a weirdly keen melodic side, that the band seems to try to be keeping in check, but it still seeps into all their songs, which is not at all a bad thing, but shit this fucked up and fierce, shouldn't be catchy to boot.
How about the warped lurching, melting guitar crawl of "Start Saving For Your Funeral", or the churning Cavity-like chug of "Strip Nude For Your Killer", or the almost stoner rock sounding crust of "Spitting In Infinity's Asshole", with its almost Electric Wizard sounding intro?
Fuck it, these guys rule. That's all you need to know. If the words crust, doom, sludge, black, psych, grind, churn, druggy, crushing, pummel don't already have you frothing at the mouth, then wethinks you just might be in the wrong review...
This long time aQ fave now reissued on vinyl!!
Thanks to a fateful Joy Division gig, where Crispy Ambulance singer Alan Hempsal successfully and secretly subbed for a missing Ian Curtis, The Ambulance seemed to be cursed with a reputation as pale imitatiors of Joy Division. But while at moments, Crispy Ambulance *are* dead ringers for Joy Division's post-punk pop, they were even more adept at crafting truly creepy gloom and haunting sound sculptures. At their best, they could create unsettling almost sci-fi soundscapes, and at their worst they could hold their own with their early '80s cronies Joy Division, In Camera, Wolfgang Press, etc. Totally excellent. Still sounds as fantastic as ever!
Deadly cool, existential, and cruelly absurd, Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (aka Lift To The Scaffold, or Elevator To The Gallows) is one of those brilliantly black humored French noir films about an ingenious murder plan gone awry due to a random turn of events. Directed by Louis Malle and starring Jeanne Moreau, this 1958 crime thriller also featured a beautifully understated score by Miles Davis. Working with French musicians on bass, piano and tenor saxophone, along with ex-pat American drummer Kenny Clarke, Davis alternates between mostly somber processionals with a slow stalking bass and plaintive trumpet motifs, to occasionally a scurrying and frenetic bop pace depicting the seductively modern lifestyle of these carefree and careless criminals. Davis handles the noirish vibe perfectly, resonating deeply with the doom-laden mood but with a light yet foreboding touch that draws you in and entraps you long before you realize you're a goner. Very Recommended!!!!!!
Thanks to RSD, back again on vinyl while they last. What we said when this first came out: Recorded "live" in the studio, this recording expands on the "rock" side of Deerhoof - those moments from Reveille that reminded us of The Who, with drummer Greg pounding mercilessly on his stripped down kit behind power chord outbursts. Those bits were sandwiched between more experimental fuckery, the whole thing rendered somewhat surreal by singer Satomi's high-pitched little-girl-on-acid vocals. On Apple O', the damaged noise has been toned down somewhat to make way for the aforementioned rock, but there are also some very sweet, gentle and even romantic numbers, with acoustic guitar strum and a bit of lovely fragile falsetto from Greg. They even get jazzy for a minute (damaged Beefheart lounge jazzy, that is). Even amidst romantic sweetness, Deerhoof still retain a sense of the bizarre, albeit an awfully cute kind of bizarre. It's their balancing act between fucked-up noise and twisted yet adorable pop, crazy huge rock n' roll and vulnerable beauty that make Deerhoof one of the best bands in San Francisco (at least in our opinion!). Apple O' isn't as mind-bendingly amazing as Reveille, but then it's difficult to repeat perfection. It's still super-awesome, and growing on us with every listen.
Thanks to RSD, back again on vinyl while they last. What we said when this first came out: For Green Cosmos, Deerhoof have kicked things up a notch on their already-deliciously frenetic art-rock quirk-o-meter, and they've done so in impressive style! They've not only branched off in ways that may appeal to a broader audience without alienating their old fans, but also locked into some more out-there planes. Quite a bit more melodic and composed, but also sorta like a tricked-out Beatles' "Revolution #9" mashed up with candy-coated anime soundtracks and of course some Capt. Beefheart and Melt-Banana too. At times very bizarre and epic with its grand assemlbage of tinkly toybox sounds, winky guitar stabs, tight rhythmic progressions and those pussycat-cooing vocals. You can easily imagine this accompanying a giant puppet show. Or if we were to compare it to an amusement park ride, it'd be some sorta mongrel mutant of a rollercoaster and a bumper car. Only seven songs (six new, two revised older ones "Come See The Duck" and "Byun") clocking in at around fifteen minutes, but oh such utterly splendid precision and chaos in every twisted adventure pop bite. Wheeeeeeeee!
The first in a planned 3 part 12" series from this hauntological electronic duo, whose sound we had previously described as sounding like a black metal dub record on Chain Reaction, and we're pleased to report that the sound is indeed still blackened, and dubby, and weirdly house-y, and sprawling and epic and creepy and cinematic...
Two side long tracks, the first starts out all deep shimmer, with a softly melodic buzz, spidery acoustic guitars, long stretches of billowy black ambience, bits of shuffly jazzy drift, peppered with thick shards of buzzy fractured dub bass and Kompakt style skitter, giving way to glistening late night techno, whirling pop ambient, and blissed out ethereal dronemusic.
The flipside is cinematic and dramatic, epic and majestic, like some lost Italian soundtrack, big drums, orchestral and ominous, looped samples, blurred melodic smears over deep pulsing bass, whirling clouds of cymbal shimmer, insectoid FX buzz, jumbled atonal melodies (hints of Bernard Herrmann), the vibe tense and haunting, with some dubstep bass buzz, that slowly dissolves into a Caretaker like outro, all layered strings wreathed in hiss and crackle, hazy and druggy and divine.
So good. We're already anxiously awaiting part two...
Two old doooooom favorites at last back in stock after a loooooong time! And at a way cheaper price. We've long been obsessed with bands like Skepticism, Earth, Burzum, Benighted Leams; all bands so "fucked" and/or with such a singular "vision" that they transcend the metal genre. And from the second we first heard Esoteric we knew they belonged on that list. Self-described as "dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical and barbaric doom", who are we to argue? Two double cds of ultra depressive, dirgey, near ambient drones. Each a murky morass of slow motion riffs, amphibious guitar solos and tortured cries. But also strangely beautiful, at times recalling the lugubrious soundscapes of Labradford or Magnog. Metal for the drone set, perhaps? Plus you gotta love any band that merits a "fuck you" on Electric Wizard's special thanks list!
These guys are the ultimate doomlords, brutally uncommercial, with an unapologetically ultra-positive drug stance, and an apparent disinterest in allowing anyone to buy their music, at least in the early stages, but a band this uncompromisingly crushing and confusionally kick ass couldn't remain a secret forever. And if you still need a reason to pick up BOTH of these double discs, Epistemological Despondency and The Pernicious Enigma, which in our minds can be considered a sprawling single 4 part dooooooom epic, just have a gander at the liner notes to Epistemological Despondency:
"FUCK OFF AND DIE: Society, the monarchy, the pigs (fucking bastards), politicians, the government, all holy denominations and followers of the 'right-hand path'. Moralistic bastards, the legal system, all oppressors and authority. All of the ignorant, narrow-minded, stupid humans who follow authorities without questioning. Love. All 'pretend' Satanists, who give the ignorant lease to ridicule 'true' Satanism. All bands who are 'out to put what the people like'. All the sad cunts who have turned underground music into pop-music full of cliches. All psychic vampires and scrounging wankers. All perpetrators of censorship. Those that use drugs, Satanism or music as a scapegoat in order to hide the true cause of their actions--you are as weak as the christians, you cannot fight for yourselves, so you cower in renunciation. To those who would interfere with us, beware!".
FUCK YEAH!
Two old doooooom favorites at last back in stock after a loooooong time! And at a way cheaper price. We've long been obsessed with bands like Skepticism, Earth, Burzum, Benighted Leams; all bands so "fucked" and/or with such a singular "vision" that they transcend the metal genre. And from the second we first heard Esoteric we knew they belonged on that list. Self-described as "dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical and barbaric doom", who are we to argue? Two double cds of ultra depressive, dirgey, near ambient drones. Each a murky morass of slow motion riffs, amphibious guitar solos and tortured cries. But also strangely beautiful, at times recalling the lugubrious soundscapes of Labradford or Magnog. Metal for the drone set, perhaps? Plus you gotta love any band that merits a "fuck you" on Electric Wizard's special thanks list!
These guys are the ultimate doomlords, brutally uncommercial, with an unapologetically ultra-positive drug stance, and an apparent disinterest in allowing anyone to buy their music, at least in the early stages, but a band this uncompromisingly crushing and confusionally kick ass couldn't remain a secret forever. And if you still need a reason to pick up BOTH of these double discs, Epistemological Despondency and The Pernicious Enigma, which in our minds can be considered a sprawling single 4 part dooooooom epic, just have a gander at the liner notes to Epistemological Despondency:
"FUCK OFF AND DIE: Society, the monarchy, the pigs (fucking bastards), politicians, the government, all holy denominations and followers of the 'right-hand path'. Moralistic bastards, the legal system, all oppressors and authority. All of the ignorant, narrow-minded, stupid humans who follow authorities without questioning. Love. All 'pretend' Satanists, who give the ignorant lease to ridicule 'true' Satanism. All bands who are 'out to put what the people like'. All the sad cunts who have turned underground music into pop-music full of cliches. All psychic vampires and scrounging wankers. All perpetrators of censorship. Those that use drugs, Satanism or music as a scapegoat in order to hide the true cause of their actions--you are as weak as the christians, you cannot fight for yourselves, so you cower in renunciation. To those who would interfere with us, beware!".
FUCK YEAH!
This ultra limited, double 3"cd-r from one of our favorite space synth kraut drone explorers disappeared before we could get our hands on any copies at all. Thankfully, both the band and the label offered to do another (equally limited) pressing of the cd-r's, just for aQuarius, so we got a bunch of those, and we also got a handful of the cassette tape version, just released on Expo 70's own label, so this is definitely your last chance to grab one of these cd-r sets, odds are the tapes won't be around long either, and by now, you know pretty much everything Expo 70 is worth owning.
And Psychic Funeral is indeed another primo slab of glistening washed out space drone drift. Two 18+ minute missives from the farthest reaches of the solar system, the first, a hushed glistening sprawl, all stretched out tones, and upper register shimmer, minimal melodies wrapped around clouds of chordal whir, deep cavernous drones underpinning constantly shifting streaks, buried pulses, swirly and tangled, almost cinematic sounding stretches of lost soundtrack music, haunting and mysterious and otherworldly, building to a buzzing finale, before slipping into a strange looped outro.
The second disc / side is another wide open starscape of melodic fragments, of prismatic glimmer, a softly blurred expanse of tonal color and softly heaving swells, a Tangerine Dream of kaleidoscopic swirls and layered sonic smears, eventually billowing into some soft focus psychedelia, the guitars unfurling some gorgeously chiming reverb drenched melodic tendrils, before drifting back in the blackness of space. So gorgeous.
Killer packaging too, the cd version features hand screened 3" discs, housed in a folded plastic pouch with a full color insert. Tape has a swank full color sleeve. And again VERY VERY LIMITED.
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We had no idea that Thomas Fehlmann had been making music for more than 30 years, beginning with his time in the band Palais Schaumburg moving on to his work in Detroit/Berlin techno group 3MB (with Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald), finally playing in the Orb to this day, as well as tons of solo records, quite impressive for sure, but this one, this is something else, selections from a score Fehlmann did for a film called 24H Berlin, which is the longest documentary film in history, a full 24 hours long, the filmmakers employed 80 cameras, and followed various Berliners over a 24 hour period, documenting a day in the life in Berlin. It's hard to even fathom trying to compose 24 hours of music, thankfully, Fehlmann shared those duties with another composer, so he probably needed to only come up with 12 hours worth of music, but still, incredible.
And the sounds here are of course gorgeous, that Kompakt sound we love so much, a lush mix of old school techno, modern Berlin dub, and washed out dreamlike pop ambience, if you didn't know this was a soundtrack, you might just assume this was a regular Fehlmann release, which for listening purposes it might as well be. After some cool, late night skitter and thump, the record blossoms into some truly lovely dronemusic, prismatic and crystalline, before slipping back into some clipped stuttery dub and we're off.
The whole record is very warm, and soothing, dreamy, melodic, from the hushed pulse of "Speeding", definitely evocative of late night drives, to the almost Kraftwerk sounding "In The Wind II", lilting and lovely, but underpinned by a busy bit of warbly bass, to the hazy ethereal blurscape of "Von Oben", that eventually transforms into some minimal ambient techno, to the lush and warmly melodic closer "Schieben", which musically sounds like a time lapse photo of a city growing dark as the sun slips beneath the horizon, reminds us of Tim Hecker or Fennesz, so gorgeous.
The songs are balanced pretty evenly between beats and ambience, the two elements constantly blurring into one another, the result being a lush, easy flowing, drifting, dolorous electronic dreamscape.
Last list we had the heavy, heavy Moses from Denmark, this list again another great Shadoks reissue of a Scandinavian psychprogpop album from the early '70s, the Norwegian duo Finjarn & Jensen's eponymous elpee from 1970. A one-off classic in the annals of Norwegian rock, it brought together a few key members of a late '60s supergroup called Jumbo. Svein Finjarn (guitars and vocals) and Leif Jensen (drums, plus additional guitars and vocals), with some help from, among others, Norwegian guitar hero Freddy Lindquist (also ex-Jumbo) and British producer John Mills, carefully crafted an exciting, entertaining, anything-goes slice of hard rock / pop that encompassed Beatlesy balladry and rockin' proto-metal umph, quite a bit like the UK's Blossom Toes, we'd say.
Sung entirely in English, it's indeed got an Anglophilic angle to it, being described by the label as "a real British psychedelic flower power album made in Norway". Irreverently so, though, as they're surely taking the piss with the silly-Brits, upper-class-twits skit in the middle of the track "Lady Windsor" (not that's not something Blossom Toes wouldn't have done too).
Lead off track "One More Day" has moments that remind us of Led Zeppelin (and also the White Stripes!). It features rollicking blues rock licks, a catchy vocal chorus (rising into an outrageous falsetto), and an overdose of burbling sci-fi spaceship noises. Brilliant! The remaining six songs on the record often include such elements as well, along with other proggy surprises. Some cuts are rather more gentle and melodic, others get heavier with the wah wah guitars. Oh, and drum solos! Jensen shows off a bit during the percussion-heavy "What Else Can We Do?" and "Grey Skies", especially. Plus, there's what's got to be the perfect title for a nearly 8 minute long acid blues jam, "Sorry Girl, But Now I Know Things Will Be Much Better Now You've Gone".
Quite delightful. And as usual, it's a nice Shadoks reissue job, the booklet containing vintage color photos, lyrics, and the original liner notes translated into English.
Could there be a worse band name than Frat Dad? Does it help having a song called "Greg The Nerd"? Or having your record cover a photo of two jocks doing karaoke? We're beginning to think this is some sort of secretly subversive aesthetic, spearheaded by the Underwater Peoples label (check out the Alex Bleeker lp reviewed elsewhere on this list, with its bros hanging out around the pool in khakis and flip flops cover art), but the label has definitely proved itself to be a reliable source for the sort of murky reverb drenched garage pop we've been digging so much lately, and this 7" from Frat Dad is just that, jangly, fuzzy, distorted power pop in garage rock's clothing, a sound that would most definitely appeal to fans of Ty Segall, Bare Wires, Thee Oh Sees, the same sort of hazy sixties vibe infused with that more modern retro thing that seems to be taking over. But it's a sound we dig, and these guys do it well. You might remember their tracks from the two Under Water Peoples Records compilations, and if you dug those, you'll dig these too.
The B-side is much more minimal and murky and moody and stripped down, spidery guitars, distorted vocals, shuffling drums, all woozy and washed out, with a distorted crunch of a chorus, and a killer hook. Which once again, just goes to show, you shouldn't judge a record by its dude/bro/frat rock cover.
Cool stuff.
With all the attention folks like Grouper, Valet, Inca Ore, and Julianna Barwick have gotten in recent times, its easy to forget that it was the music of Fursaxa that predated their ethereal and ghostly sounds by a few years. Through the years, Tara Burke has consistently released music as eerie and haunting as those above with a distinctive pantheistic foresty vibe that is both ritualistic and witchy but mesmerizing and mystical as well. Previous efforts have been more lo-fi and acoustic, with lots of flutes and bells and blurry squalls of sounds. Her latest, Mycorrhizae Realm, is her more polished and composed to date, sounding like a lost album by Vashti Bunyan or Desert Shore-era Nico in its gentle grace and beauty.
Harmonium drones, bird-song flutes, harps, bells, acoustic guitar and her own floating harmonies accompany ancient sounding folk melodies from a lost civilization. Equal attention is placed on song-form as well as sound. Where previous releases had shown Fursaxa coaxing melodies out of the sound she creates, here melody takes center stage to the compositional decisions taking on a less improvisational feeling than before. This makes the songs more focused and constructed, but with the slow majestic unfolding that the mood she conjures require. Breathtaking!
It's unfortunate that we've not listed any G*Park recordings until now; but it's certainly better late than never. G*Park is the work of Marc Zeier who has been quietly generating some of the most evocative musique concrete / electro-acoustic whatnot / broken drones / softened noisejunk since the mid '80s. These recordings had mostly been on cassette back in the day, with a couple of discs appearing over the past decade thanks to Blossoming Noise and the defunkt Zabriskie Point label. He's also an auxiliary member of the aktionist Schimpfluch collective, although his work shares little of their scatological hyper-violence of smeared fish guts, vomit, and bloodletting. Yet, the G*Park recordings mirrors the sinister vibe of Schimplfuch through his delicately disfigured field recordings and tape-cut manipulation. Zeier presents a masterful collage of disjointed repetitions from handcranked mechanisms that rupture with bellowing drones and aqueous gurglings. Elsewhere, air raid sirens explode through the laser-whipsnap recoil of cellphone tension wires being struck, and the reverberation of prepared piano abuse slams against densely packed drones into thunderous punctures. These pieces are clinical studies of decay amplified from a microscopic order; and considering that Zeier's occupation is a plankton fisherman (seriously!), perhaps these are the birth pangs and death throes of those tiny creatures. A very highly recommended piece of sound art!
Another awesome slab of lo-fi intergalactic warped pop from Gary War. Seems like each of his releases keeps getting more damaged, drugged out, and space-y. This new single is brimming with hissing tape, changing speeds, acid drenched keyboards, and GW's distorted and enchanting vocals. Both songs sound like being trapped in some long gone 80's arcade game with all the wires and sockets disconnected creating all these weird glitches, pitch shifts, crumbling loops, electronic buzz, but somehow all wrapped around some insanely warped and catchy garage pop. While it might be frustrating for GW to always be lumped in with his pals Ariel Pink and John Maus, those comparisons are inevitable. But with Ariel Pink about to make his big 4AD debut with much higher production value, it might be up to Gary Way to carry the flame for totally fractured and fried outsider pop.
The last Fresh & Onlys full length was probably our favorite so far, but this SF garage pop combo don't seem to show any signs of letting up. Two new tracks, more of the same, big drums, jangly guitars, lush reverbed vocals, male and female, harmonies, hooks galore, total sweet sixties pop filtered through the more fuzzy blown out lo-if garage of today, few do it better, a little Kinks, a little Beatles, a lot of crunch and shimmer and shuffle and soar. Surfy, garage-y, hazy and washed out and summery and so goddamn catchy.
Teamed up with the F&O's here are Golden Triangle, hyped as the next big thing, we weren't super into their recent full length, but these two tracks have us reconsidering our position.
Fuzzy, crunchy riffs, sixties girl group vox, definitely fits perfectly alongside the current crop of 'Girls (Dum Dum, Vivian, etc.), but with way more of an eighties post-punk vibe, especially on the second track, with its chiming guitars, jungly tribal rhythm, two chord chug, and animal sounds. Cool!
We've never seen this movie but if it's anything like the soundtrack, boy do we want to see it. It must be INSANE. And very, very groovy. 'Cause this is one trippy record, guitarist/composer Billy Green's psychedelic soundtrack to the 1974 biker flick Stone, today a cult classic (we hear it's out now on dvd, gotta find it!). It's from Australia, one of the early precursors to Mad Max in the so-called "Ozpolitation" genre (about which there's been a recent documentary that we also have to see!), doubtless full of violence, stunts, bikes, and girls.
We don't know much about the plot except that it involves the badass Gravediggers motorcycle gang (who, while as shaggy and dirty as any Hell's Angels, ride fancy new Japanese pocket rockets instead of the Harleys you might expect), characters with names like Dr. Death, Stone, Toad, Undertaker, Captain Midnight, most of whom get their own distinctive cues on the soundtrack. Beyond that, the liner notes mention acid trips and something about a political assassination, and well if you know what happens don't tell us 'cause we don't want to spoil anything for when/if we do see the film, we'll just enjoy the music for now!
Track one, the six minute, 35 second long "Eco Blue/Toadstrip" really dumps listeners in at the deep end, being a dark and unsettling musique concrete composition consisting of noisy electronic Moog synth bbrrzapp, and didgeridoo drone (ordinarily we detest the didge, but this IS an Australian movie), like a drug fuelled jam between aliens and aborigines. If you survive that (rather than report to the tent for those who ate the bad acid), the next track shifts mood considerably, being a funky freaky instrumental called "Race", full of wah-wah guitar and more electronic embellishments. Yep, just two tracks in and it's already totally awesome! As the disc continues, you'll get to hear all sorts of other strange and groovy sounds, including short interludes of sound effects and chanting ("Pigs"), lush, melancholic orchestration ("Cosmic Funeral"), bluegrass pickin' ("Septic"), classical strings and splashing cymbals ("Amanda"), Hendrix-y fuzzed fusion ("Stone"), mellow hippie blues-bliss ("Smoke"), heavy prog plus free jazz freakout ("Gravediggers"), and loads more that's either super groovy or super wacked, or both. Sometimes it sounds like a 'proper' film soundtrack, with the usual sort of suspenseful or sentimental cinematic stylings, but mostly it's all about sleazy, krautrocky chaos!
It's mostly instrumental, except for the bonus tracks, one which consists of dialogue from the film ("Hip's Rap"), one being a kinda cheesy soul-fuzz number ("Cosmic Flash"), and also two portentous versions of "Do Not Go Gentle (Rage)", a song based on the Dylan Thomas poem, set to music by Billy Green - we prefer the second one, sung by Jeannie Lewis, which was probably very important to the emotional impact of some crucial scene in the movie but here just seems awesomely over the top and incongruous.
The final bonus track is the audio from the original theatrical trailer for the movie, which starts off with someone screaming "SATAN!!!!!" followed by a dead pan voiceover intoning "Stone is a trip", and reciting further selling points, backed by a collage of sound effects and funky hard rock vamping, all snippets from the soundtrack. Again, it makes us want to see it... except, in a way, maybe we're realizing it's better to have the film exist (for us) only in our imaginations, 'cause the soundtrack is so far out it seems likely that the actual film couldn't possibly live up to it, could it? In any event, the soundtrack certainly stands by itself as a sizzlingly lysergic slice of '70s rock/electronic weirdness, part Bobby Beausoleil, part Amon Duul, a little bit Sly Stone, a little bit Sir Lord Baltimore... and altogether Stone(d).
Now, if you search on such keywords as "motorcycle gang", "fuzz", and "soundtrack" on our website, besides this you'll find our rave review of another Satanic motorcycle gang movie soundtrack that we ALSO made a Record Of The Week once upon a time, that'd be the music by John Cameron and session band Frog from the 1972 zombie biker flick Psychomania, reissued by Trunk some years back, and now sadly out of print again. Billy Green's Stone soundtrack is obviously the only thing that comes close. You could definitely file 'em together, Stone being a worthy successor (with a song called "Toad" instead of one called "The Frog"). It'd be a great double feature.
Also, remember that unusual series of Aussie psychedelic sixties/seventies surf movie soundtracks from the Japanese label EM, we listed a while back? The ones by Farm, Peter Martin & Finch, Tamam Shud, etc.? Though this is inspired by wheels rather than waves, and ain't so sunshiney, still fits in with the best of those.
As usual with B-Music / Finders Keepers productions, this is a labor of love, and the cd booklet reflects that, its many pages stuffed full of full-color film stills and poster artwork, along with a lengthy and knowledgeable essay by DJ Andy Votel. Before delving into the story of Stone, Votel talks a bit about the history of '60s / '70s B-movie biker cinema, citing the aforementioned Psychomania as an important forerunner to this film and its soundtrack.
Like we said, we've never seen Stone, though we want to. However, we've been fans of this soundtrack for some time. There was a previous, Australia-only compact disc reissue of this back in 1999, on the occasion of the film's 25th anniversary (which was celebrated with a 35,000 strong biker rally!). We were never really able to get any to stock though, so it's awesome to have this now, and it's been further expanded with additional bonus tracks, as well as nicely packaged, including a slipcover. When we heard it was coming out again, we immediately thought, Record Of The Week. Finally folks everywhere will get a chance to hear this, and ride with Stone and the Gravediggers!
Most people know Growing as the drone duo of Joe Denardo and Kevin Doria. Well, welcome to 2010, where Growing are now a trio (again, for the first time in a long while) and where the drone seems to have taken a backseat to the band's more electronic persuasions. The new member comes in the form of Sadie Laska, whose vocals and sampling add some nice feminine energy to what was once primarily a dudefest (if two guys qualifies as a "dudefest"). We're sure there are some people wondering what happened, but we're too busy enjoying this new approach, because let's face it, two guys with guitars, E-bows, and a plethora of pedals is all well and good, but you can only go so far with that before wising up to the fact that there is much more to life. What makes Pumps! so great is not only the fact that Growing have switched things up, but how they went about doing it and how, at the end of the day, it still makes total sense that this is Growing. This is a much needed evolutionary step for sure, and the band sounds revitalized. Not only that, but without going too overboard or kissing ass to any trends, the new Growing does fit in quite well with many of today's electronic warriors like recent tourmates Fuck Buttons, Black Dice, and even Animal Collective if you downplayed some of their more hippie-ish tendencies. Growing's new home with the notorious Vice label will also assuredly lead to... well, some crazy shit we would imagine.
The album opens with "Short Circuit", and even though many of you have probably heard of the changes, your first reaction may still be, "Is this Growing?" It is, but with heavy beats and electronic squelches which soon become very melodic. Laska's voice comes in and seems to oscillate from speaker to speaker, creating it's own rhythmic flow that goes perfectly with the mutant dub production style. The sound here is hard to define but undeniably rad and definitely worthy of the title "Short Circuit". Elsewhere, you get some nice '80s video game inspired stuff, like on "Massive Dropout", with it's hi-hat beat guiding you to a portal opening into some weird dimension with laid back, easy grooves. We are tempted to use words like "sunny" and "summery", but those don't seem to indicate the weirdness of it all. On "Highlight" we picked up what seems to be a pretty heavy Kraftwerk influence, in fact some of us were even reminded of the song "Hall Of Mirrors", but maybe we're just crazy. Either way, awesome stuff that is super catchy and really good for headphone listening. Perhaps poking fun at themselves, or even their fans (lightheartedly, of course), "Drone Burger" does utilize a nice drone reminiscent of Spacemen 3's "Repeater" with little keyboard stabs punctuating the atmosphere. Closing number "Mind Eraser" makes good use of a thumping beat and electronic static. The overall feeling of paranoia is heightened by a voice proclaiming, "I love drugs" as other indecipherable voices shoot all over the place before the words "I love you" creepily take the song to it's fadeout conclusion.
Awesome stuff, and definitely a positive step forward for these guys and gal. It's great to see a band manage to surprise while also confirming the identity they already established, making it clear that Growing will remain Growing as long the musicians involved are willing to take risks and keep... growing (sorry, heh).
A 'repress' of a cd-r that we never got the first time around. Mr. Hauschildt is one of the three members of Emeralds; but unlike John Elliott and Mark McGuire, he doesn't seem to be as prolific in terms of solo and side projects, with less than a half-dozen tape and cd-r releases to speak of (compared to mountains of material from those other two). With The Critique Of The Beautiful, Hauschildt doesn't stray too far from the Emeralds sound of kosmiche dronescaping through analog synths and pedals. The album is dying to be made into a piece of vinyl, with the first four pieces acting as one suite that would be nicely matched by the lengthy finale. One of those first four - "What One Does To Another" - has almost a brightened Tim Hecker feel with percolating melodic phases piled below a thickened mass of warmly buzzed distortion. This is followed by "Runway" lovely post-Cluster track of pastoral synthesis built from a rhythmic arpeggiation anchored by a spiralling set of sequential notes and tone-bent phrases. And that extended finale opens with an oscillating flange of church organ minimalism, settling upon a melancholy melody which slowly shifts between just a few minor key notes which gradually wanders into zoned-out passages of electronic bubbling and fizzed textures. Very beautiful, very moving stuff.
Limited stock on this, so don't be surprised when this one sells out.
It's pretty much a given at this point: High On Fire can do no wrong. For over a decade now, they have been one of the most reliable and awesome metal bands on the planet... so reliable in fact, that it's easy to almost take them for granted. But every time a new album hits the streets, we have the same reaction, which includes foaming at the mouth, an increased heart rate, and the urge to destroy everything in sight. They're that good.
Snakes For The Divine is the band's first post-Relapse album, brought to us by E1 Entertainment, formerly Koch. Not sure what the deal is with this label, but the change has done the band some good for sure. The biggest surprise here is the slightly more polished production courtesy of hot shit producer Greg Fidelman, who you might remember from Slayer's recent World Painted Blood and, cough, Metallica's Death Magnetic. But fear not, because words like "polished" are really only used relative to the band's back catalog and do not in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER take away from the sonic beatdown Oakland's favorite sons have delivered since day one. They've just moved on, but there will be no mistaking who this is. Matt Pike's throatshredding vocals and guitar mastery (seriously, who else in metal today can rival this guy?) will tear you apart in the best way imaginable, and then you got the rhythm section, without question one of the best and most punishing in the biz. Des Kensel's intense whirlwind drumming and Jeff Matz's low end rumble are the perfect accompaniment for Pike's onslaught, making High On Fire sound like an uncontrollable force of nature, or maybe some ancient army storming across the mountains toward their ultimate victory. At the same time, this is the kind of metal that people who aren't really into heavier music can still dig, just because everything is done so perfectly. There's really nothing not to like here, and goddamn, this is some catchy stuff. Considering how brutal it is, that's definitely saying something. For a band that hasn't strayed too far from the sound they established early on, it's amazing that High On Fire can remain so vital and awesome. But they've once again delivered, in fact we'd go as far as to say that this is their best effort since 2002's Surrounded By Thieves, and we have no doubt Snakes For The Divine will have you raging into the next morning. Fuck yeah.
Bay Area sound artist Raub Roy goes by the name of Horaflora; and his performances are really impressive exercises in controlled electro-acoustic chaos, with low-tech electronics skittering above various tactile scrapes counterpointed by reversed currents of placid bass frequencies and tonal undulation. One of his best performance stunts is to fill up large balloons, shove a trumpet mouthpiece inside the balloon, and drop the metal mouthpiece on a large drumhead. With two of these devices going, Horaflora can generate prolonged vibration and acoustically phased drones that are really amazing.
Gland Canyon is a small run edition released by Instal Records (which had released a Caretaker disc a while back, although this shares little aesthetic similarity), and works through many of the clamorous, decomposing sounds that Horaflora generates in a live setting. It can't be qualified as 'noise' as these collages are more in keeping with a tradition of automatic writing through sound, with idiosyncratic juxtapositions of electronic bloops, ring modulated flanges, minuscule clatter of wood and metal, mad-scientist weirdo percolations, and those sublimated balloon drones. As such it's more in keeping with some of the HNAS collages or something deconstructed from Small Cruel Party and old P.16.D4 tapes. The various tracks ebb and flow with an unhurried pace that slowly magnifies some of the many sounds into more sparse hypno-repetitive passages and then sweep everything into rather dense crescendos of scattershot sediment. Limited to 100 copies.
The Numero Group label starts 2007 on the softer side of things with this obscure British gem from singer Catherine Howe. For those of you who enjoyed the Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies Of The Canyon compilation, that the Numero Group released last year, then this might just be up your alley. Mellow and melancholic, Howe has a soulful voice that's similar to Dusty Springfield or Bobbie Gentry, underscored by soft orchestral jazz arrangements (courtesy of Bobby Scott) that remind us of early A&M records or John Cameron soundtracks like Kes. In fact this seems more like the kind of soft British album Trunk records would have re-issued, but that goes to show what an unpredictable label Numero Group really is. Recorded for Reflection Records in 1971, What A Beautiful Place sank into obscurity when the label folded shortly thereafter. While we have never heard of her before this, Howe recorded two more albums after this one and has recently started recording again. This is a perfect record for a rainy day or Sunday morning with a nice hot cup of tea.
We were pretty into the Ikonika tracks we'd heard, especially on that kick ass Hyperdub comp. And we were pretty thrilled to discover that Ikonika was in fact a woman, a rarity in the dubstep boy's club for sure, and while many of us lean toward the harder and heavier, darker and deeper, in dance music, there are definitely some exceptions, the party music of Zomby being one, and Ikonika being another, her music is definitely dubstep, but it's weirdly retro, definitely reminding us of 8-bit video game music, and at the same time sort of futuristic, but that cheesy sci-fi future imagined by any thousands of late night straight to video movies. Apparently she used to be a drummer in a post hardcore band too, not sure that's relevant, but it's definitely cool!
A dizzying hybrid of spaced out dubbed out minimal electronica and old school synth pop, a little hip hop too, synths all over the place, sometimes glimmery and shimmery, other times ominous and foreboding and a bit Carpenter-ish, creating a weirdly lush backdrop for Ikonika's retro futurist beats, from skeletal skitter, to groovy stutter, to total eighties new wave MTV, to fuzzy funky groove, to pulsing house-y thump, the beats and synths constantly tangling, often locking into cool synchronous rhythm, but just as often colliding wildly in total chaotic video game dance floor mayhem. All the tracks here rule, our favorites are the ones that sound either like Commodore 64 jams, music from some bootleg Japanese Dance Dance Revolution knockoff, or the credits from some ridiculous eighties teen horror film, which thankfully is most of 'em.
Back in print!
Remastered with new liner notes, in a swank digipak with all the elements of the original packaging, these look heaps better than the Collector's Choice twofers that were the last reissued incarnation of these classic albums. The 5,000 Spirits and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter have been released separately this time around, while Wee Tam and The Big Huge are still bundled together as a 2cd set.
Here's what we said about them previously:
England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties/early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics. Very sixties, very hippy - they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. Perhaps less truly traditional than Fairport, they made a bigger splash with the LSD crowd of The UFO Club where they played often with the likes of early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum. Their music encompassed British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. - an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion dates from 1967 - it's their second album, featuring only the core duo of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron (Clive Palmer left after the first record to form his own band, C.O.B.) - and was the first solid fulfillment of their Brit folk + Middle Eastern + Indian raga equation, as they added the ouds an' sitars to their original Anglo-American folk interpretations with some wonderfully moody results.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog once again...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
Back in print!
Remastered with new liner notes, in a swank digipak with all the elements of the original packaging, these look heaps better than the Collector's Choice twofers that were the last reissued incarnation of these classic albums. The 5,000 Spirits and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter have been released separately this time around, while Wee Tam and The Big Huge are still bundled together as a 2cd set.
Here's what we said about them previously:
England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties/early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics. Very sixties, very hippy - they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. Perhaps less truly traditional than Fairport, they made a bigger splash with the LSD crowd of The UFO Club where they played often with the likes of early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum. Their music encompassed British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. - an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
Their 1968 follow-up to The 5,000 Spirits, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter is one of the ISB's best-regarded efforts, taking the sound of their previous effort to more free-form extremes. Dolly Collins (sister of Shirley) helps out on this one. One of the pinnacle acid-folk records to inspire the likes of many modern bands from Current 93 to Devendra Banhart.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog once again...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
Back in print!
Remastered with new liner notes, in a swank digipak with all the elements of the original packaging, these look heaps better than the Collector's Choice twofers that were the last reissued incarnation of these classic albums. The 5,000 Spirits and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter have been released separately this time around, while Wee Tam and The Big Huge are still bundled together as a 2cd set.
Here's what we said about them previously:
England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties/early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics. Very sixties, very hippy - they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. Perhaps less truly traditional than Fairport, they made a bigger splash with the LSD crowd of The UFO Club where they played often with the likes of early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum. Their music encompassed British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. - an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
This two-fer 2cd is consistent with these albums' original UK release in 1968, as both Wee Tam and The Big Huge were issued together as a 2lp set. Again the ISB mix their Celtic and Appalachian folkie roots with "world" influences, and although this is quite mellow and gentle, they also brought in some electric amplification at this point. With female vocals n' whistles n' fiddles n' sitar etc. this is quite pretty stuff, great summer morning sitting in a sunny meadow music. Both records are ISB fan favorites, with gorgeous four-part vocal harmonies, whimsical but sometimes dark moods, and of course lots of Incredible String-ed instrument playing.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog once again...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
Invocations of Surrealism have come to reflect a Frank Zappa or Dr. Bizarro form of 'weird,' with little understanding and even less appreciation for the truly revolutionary nature of the Surrealism that dominated avant-garde culture in the early 20th Century. Fortunately, a few sound artists have truly succeeded in manifesting the spirit of Surrealism in their work. The most obvious being Nurse With Wound in keeping true to the Surrealists bawdy appropriation of Victorian aesthetics in exploring unsettling horrors; and to a lesser extent, there's the Hafler Trio who took the intense interrogrations of Surrealism to a gnostic conclusion. Somewhere in between these two giants of sound art is the work of Irr.App.(ext). For the past eight or nine years, Irr.App.(ext) has been toiling in obscurity, and producing a body of work that easily rivals his more well known compatriots.
Some of you may remember a stunning art exhibit here at Aquarius records back in the early spring of 2003 with all sorts of obtuse collages, exquisitely rendered nightmarish drawings, and shadow boxes loaded with peculiar juxtapostions and mixed messages. That was the work of Matt Waldron, who also happens to be the man behind the musical project Irr.App.(Ext) along with a couple of likeminded delinquents. Unfortunately, Matt has had a ridiculous spell of bad luck with labels folding before releasing his work, or not being able to find the funding, or just being jerks. His luck has finally changed with the release of Dust Pincher Appliances, which in turn reissues a very early 10" originally released on Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson's Something Weird label back in 1995. Waldron has extended the original recordings with those of a follow-up 10" which was never actually released.
Though some eight years old, the recordings on Dust Pincher Appliances are still stunning. The album unfolds as an ever changing drama of Surreal events, evolving through time to reveal startling revelations, disquieting progressions, and atypical juxtapositions of sound. Eerie drones and atmospheres dominate the majority of the album, haunted by distant voices bathed in reverb or unrecognizable events that scurry malevolently like tiny monsters or robotic insects. Carnivalesque episodes often interrupt the proceedings with cackling sound effects, brash trumpet blurts, and toy piano discord.
Dust Pincher Appliances is a marvelous album and should be the harbinger of a wonderful catalog that the world needs to embrace.
This one barely needs a description, fifth in the ongoing limited series of cds documenting the Isis live experience. This one from way back in 2006 when the band was invited to play the All Tomorrows Parties Don't Look Back series, where bands play classic albums in their entirety, so for Isis it was Oceanic, a killer record for sure, although the liner notes point out that they weren't really sure about doing it, seeing as that record was not that old at the time. Buy they went for it, and in the liner notes discuss how they arrived to play their classic Oceanic set, not nearly as prepared as they thought they were, so some tracks, at least in their estimation were smooth and perfect, and others were on the verge of collapse, but as an objective listener the whole thing sounds pretty excellent, heavy, and majestic and moody, sprawling and proggy and heavy as fuck. There's a reason these guys rule the post/math metal roost. For sure a little loose, but in some ways some of these songs sound even better that way. And live engineering courtesy of Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.) probably didn't hurt either.
Gorgeous packaging as always, letter pressed green on green 6 panel sleeves, in a plastic envelope sealed with a sticker. Not necessarily the place to start for Isis newbies (that would be Oceanic proper), but hell, this sounds nearly as good as the studio version, and would definitely have us hankering for more, certainly essential for Isis fans, and as always, somewhat limited...
Yay, we mean uh oh, we mean yay, heck it's a new ep from the controversial ('round here anyway) psychedelic doom chanteuse Jex Thoth and her band of the same name. Controversial? Well, let's just say her trademark theatrical vocal stylings are a subjective, love 'em or hate 'em proposition, though we all pretty much agree the band's heavy, hazy music is awesome. And among the AQ staff, Allan at least has finally succumbed entirely (it was inevitable) and now proudly declares himself a true Jex Thoth fan, which means he was quite happy to see 'em play last week at the Roadburn Festival in Holland. In live performance, Jex's apparent thespian background proved quite effective, she had excellent stage presence not to mention witchy sex appeal, cape-draped and with candles burning. They played to a packed house and it was quite obvious they had lots of fans in the audience!
We also know Jex has plenty of fans out there among the AQ faithful, and they'll be pleased with Witness, comprised of three new recordings, suitably dramatic and lugubrious, clocking in at just over 15 minutes total: "Raven Nor The Spirit", "Slow Rewind", and "Mr. Rainbow", the latter a cover of a song by '70s European art rockers Slapp Happy (a good choice, if you didn't know better you'd think it was a Jex Thoth original). Bearing a dedication to the late Jack Rose, and again graced with cover art by Reverend Bizarre's Sami "Albert Witchfinder" Hynninen, this ep is a fine continuation of the eccentric underground doom-prog sounds heard on Jex Thoth's 2008 self-titled full-length, although apparently there's been another lineup change in the band since that release (for one thing, Silas Paine, aka Jewelled Antler's Glenn Donaldson, is no longer playing guitar). However, they still sound like a bit like Curved Air taking downers with Electric Wizard (or something), totally vintage, bass heavy '70s psych sounds with prominent Hammond organ action, both bombastic and atmospheric, over which Jex's cleanly-sung, clearly enunciated vocals soar. Probably if you're at all interested in this ep, you've already got the earlier full-length, and if you liked that, you'll like this, need we say much more? Uh, how 'bout for fans of Jacula, Blood Ceremony, The Devil's Blood, and Witchcraft (capital 'W' and otherwise)?
There is no stronger authentic soul voice in the present day then Sharon Jones. She is the real deal, a woman who's voice and presence is completely timeless, as it would have been right at home in the golden era of soul. Making her records even that much better is that her band, The Dap-Kings are by far one of the tightest, most skilled, and tasteful makers of soulful sounds around. Anyone who has seen them live knows that it almost seems like they could play the songs with their eyes closed and play every note spot on, they are just that damn talented. But you almost forget about that aspect because it's kind of impossible not to get swept up by the voice and power of Sharon Jones. Her voice takes you to another place, another era, yet it's no put on, no gimmick, no mere retro act. She is living proof that true soul can and will live on forever. I Learned The Hard Way is another wonderful achievement in an already great string of records. These songs are so damn sensual, intoxicating, smoky and groovy. Anyone of these songs could be mistaken for the best track on one of the Eccentric Soul compilations from the '60s and '70s that we all freak out about. Filled with more slow burners that full on stompers, yet all filled with a fire that smolders just under the surface. So damn good and totally recommended!
While they were only an active band for a few years, the legacy and impact of Kleenex's (later Liliput's) music is immeasurable. Along with their peers The Slits and Raincoats, they helped spearhead female fueled post-punk. Raw, angular catchy and free from any kind of commercial gloss. Their sound was the blueprint for the riot grrl scene that would be born a decade later, with bands like Bikini Kill, Excuse 17 and Team Dresch all most definitely inspired by the amazing and uncompromising sounds this Swiss band conjured up way back in the day. Kill Rock Stars (home to many of the best of the '90s riot grrl scene) do a great job in going back to the true source of much of the label's inspiration in releasing this loving cd/dvd collection. The music portion is all from live recordings, demonstrating how stripped down, and full of fiery energy these ladies were. While we're not usually a huge fan of live records, this one makes total sense. It's not as if their studio records were recorded with much, if any budget, so hearing them live actually seems like the most proper way to enjoy their already raw infectious sounds. What made them so cool was that there was a nice variety to their sound, they could go from being really fast and punk sounding one moment to bouncy and poppy the next, and underneath their scrappy aesthetic they always managed to infuse their sound with awesome melodies.
The list of bands they have influenced could go on and on. From the aforementioned leading ladies of the riot girl scene to folks like Erase Errata, Wetdog, Dog Faced Hermans, Silver Daggers, Brilliant Colors, Electrelane, Klang, Slant 6, Deerhoof, etc.!
The dvd features really cool footage from them on tour, all shot in super 8 which makes the visuals as raw and impactful as the sounds...
This former Record Of The Week, now available on vinyl, with swank new cover art...
Washed out, hazy, dreamy, shimmery, warm, droney, otherworldly, gauzy, ethereal, all perfectly describe a microgenre we've come to love, called simply Pop Ambient. A techno subgenre, that essentially removed the beats from electronic music, leaving just the shadows, the outlines, the colors, loosed from the stricture of rhythm (for the most part), those colors and moods and textures are free to seep and bleed and drift and vaporize, into whirring soft focus streaks of blurred, almost new age-y ambience. A sound that various other music makers have definitely referenced, Jeck, Tim Hecker, the Fun Years, anyone creating haunting drone music or textured minimalism, will no doubt find themselves drifting into a certain sort of pop ambience. But it seems, that pop ambience has a certain warmth, not quite sunshine-y, but definitely a glow, the imbues the majority of that music with a dreamlike luminescence. While the other folks traffic in something much darker, and while their sound may touch on pop ambience, it remains in the realm of the black, the grey, the sonic underworld.
Weirdly enough, we do find ourselves wondering about a pop ambience that was, well, less glowing, more ominous, something darker and more sinister, that could somehow remain ambient pop, without slipping into something else, into dronemusic, or some sort of minimal noisemusic. Strange that it would come from Klimek, who is responsible for some of the dreamiest prettiest pop ambient music we've heard, but Movies Is Magic, Klimek's 'film music' record, is in fact that rare beast, a gorgeous slab of pop ambience, that seethes with tension and emotion and drama, sure it shimmers and glistens, but it also creeps and hums ominously, drones are layered and pulled taut, melodies are minor key and are wrapped around looped cycling strings, field recordings, voices, organic instruments, all woven into Klimek's constantly mutating noir soundscape.
Gorgeous and haunting, these tracks evoke everyone from Bohren, to Autechre, Philip Jeck to Pole,�Barry Adamson to Oval, this record would be a perfect fit for Kompakt if it weren't so dark, or Chain Reaction if there were some beats, instead, it exists in some strange rain soaked constant midnight nether region, the pop dialed way back, as is the ambience, this is anything but placid, or calm, this music is alive, crackling with dark energy, tense, and intense, very evocative and textural and moody. The songs are quite varied, but work perfectly together as a whole. Dark moaning horns surface here and there, Bernard Herrmann strings everywhere, the occasional skittery snare, rubbery bass, everything woven and smeared and layered, woozy and dreamlike, a few of the tracks sound all rural, a bit Morricone-ish and Western, subtly twangy with reverbed harmonica, others drift into flute flecked almost Kitaro sounding new age-y flutter, beneath a murmur of rainfall,�disembodied reverbed voices, murky percussion, and hazy looped melodies.
Here and there, the record does get all dubby, with little synth stabs, and careening not-quite beats, all wrapped in whir, and exuding a serious sonic import, sometimes sounding almost sinister, but just as often pulling back into something much more melodic and mysterious, straddling the line between lush drift and blackened beauty.
Movies Is Magic is our new late night chill out drift off soundtrack, and should certainly appeal to folks who like us maybe always fantasized about a little darkness in their ambient drift. And folks into dark drone music, black ambience, and soundtrack music, might find this the perfect gateway to the fuzzy dreamy drifty world of pop ambience.
Another incredible archival discovery from Sublime Frequencies, this the first in a series of releases chronicling Indonesian popular music from the fifties through the seventies. Koes Bersaudara were a band of brothers, heavily influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Byrds, and this collection is the first ever reissue of two of their impossible to find recordings, most notably, To The So-Called "The Guilties", considered by music historians THEE Indonesian garage rock masterpiece. And it is fantastic, jangly guitars, soaring vocals, some awesome guitar playing, super catchy, very poppy, but with hints of darkness running though many of the songs, which is not surprising, considering how difficult it was to be a rock band in Indonesia at the time, especially one playing Western styled rock and roll. In fact at one point, the brothers were jailed for three months for performing Beatles covers. Another interesting fact, is that aQ faves Dara Puspita (whose PlusTapes reissues we carried a while back) were performing around the same time, and rumors were circulating about various power plays, the Koeswoyo brothers being perhaps considered too difficult to control, with their flagrant disdain for authority, not just covering the Beatles, but for writing songs about the leader that imprisoned them ("Poor Clown") and many songs chronicling their time in jail ("In Jail", "The Ballad Of Room 15")
Once out of jail, their old label didn't want to have anything to do with them, but as the climate became more conducive to the modern styles of music, they found a new home, and recorded To The So-Called "The Guilties", the first album in Indonesian history to challenge the ruling regime. Their story is so fantastic and inspiring, it's strange to hear this music, which on the surface seems so innocuous, knowing just how controversial it was and how much of a harbinger of change it would be for Indonesian music.
But for fans of classic '60s garage rock, regardless of the back story, this is some seriously good stuff, the power and energy of life surrounding the music only infusing it with a passion and energy that transforms it from simple rock and roll to something more. This reissue includes the To The So-Called "The Guilties" lp, a 10" recorded the same year, with a bonus compilation track, extensive liner notes, chronicling the history of the band, the recording of these albums, the producer, and the music scene in Indonesia at the time. Tons of photos too, all in a swank digipak, the nicest Sublime Frequencies packaging yet. WAY recommended.
