FINALLY ALSO AVAILABLE ON CD!! Here's what we said about the vinyl version a couple weeks back:
With the opening squall of electrical noise on his latest Oneohtrix Point Never album, Daniel Lopatin must have been paying homage to Mego's history of digital cacophony, with the likes of Kevin Drumm, Florian Hecker, and Zbigniew Karkowski all abusing binary code through their releases on the label. Of course, Lopatin's signature sound is a throwback to the bygone era of education films about the wonders of chemistry and the drama of the space program with their cheesy, blooping soundtracks, so an homage to Mego is not entirely out of character from a conceptual point of view. Beyond this assaulting track, the elastic surfaces and geometric patterns which have become the hallmark of Oneohtrix Point Never work their magic on Returnal. On the title track with its staccato synthesis, Lopatin tricks his voice out through a couple of pitchshifters, rendering it very much in line with what Karin Dreijer Andersson has done in The Knife and Fever Ray. This isn't the first time he's sung on a track, as he did entertain some robotic vocals on one of those KGB Man cassettes from 2009. He follows this with a series of tracks overlapping cathode-ray drones, algorithmic shapeshifting, and pools of synthetic android tears all of which revolve into curving compositions that split the difference between pastoral new age drool puddling and progressive electronics with a nod to atonal cybernetics. Like Emeralds, who have also signed to Editions Mego, Oneohtrix Point Never has been on quite a roll, and Returnal lives up to all the hype.
Not only do we finally have the awesome Oneohtrix Point Never Returnal record now available on cd, we also just got in OPN's Young Beidnahga, released as part of Ruralfaune's Synth series (along with the Innercity reviewed elsewhere on this week's list too!), but it sold out so quick we never got a single copy. Thankfully, the label decided to do one more small batch, so the band would have copies to sell on their recent European tour, and we'd have copies to sell in the shop!
Three tracks, 26 minutes, long form blissed out spacedrones, but somehow a bit more twisted and gnarled than other OPN releases, beginning with some sprawling wavery tones that sound almost Native American, the synths soon go wild, emitting wild tangles of melody, laced with what sounds like fluttering flutes, a wild trancelike swirling soft psychedelic squall that goes on and on and on, until eventually morphing into what sounds like several minutes of lazer battle! The second track continues in much the same vein with spidery melodies branching out and intertwining, trills and arpeggiated runs, all laid over hazy whirs and a fuzzed out, blurred background soundscape, those flute like flutters return, everything sun dappled and reflective, this track two morphs part way through and becomes a woozy sprawl of spare lo-fi analog synth squiggle. The last track is definitely a surprise, a strange stripped down coda, all acoustic guitars, strange effected vocals, some sort of druggy psychedelic dronefolk, lo-fi and a bit twisted, but also weirdly lovely.
Strange for sure, even by already strange OPN standards, far out and space-y and psychedelic, this should appeal to all you kraut-drone space-synth fanatics...
Be warned, we got a little less than 40 copies, and we won't be able to get more, so this is it, and it's a doozy, so if you're already a fan, you're FOR SURE gonna want one, and if you've always wanted to check out OPN, this is as good a place to start as any....
It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since the last Oval record, even longer since Oval's Diskont record, which was and always will be an all time aQ favorite, with its gorgeously languid underwater ambience, burbling dreamily, washed out and so totally mesmerizing, all created from skipping cds, and Oval mastermind Markuss Popp's meticulously handcrafted soft AND hardware. But Oh is a whole other musical beast entirely. Right out of the gate, it sounds more like a band like Tortoise than Oval, big loud, REAL drums, spread out over what sounds like guitar harmonics, as well as a very Oval sounding lush landscape of shimmer and whir in the background, but the point is, it sounds like a band, some kind of electronic avant post rock band. And it's not just the sound, it's the process that has changed, gone are the days of expensive computers and one of a kind plug-ins and software, all of Oh, and the forthcoming double cd, was created on a stock cheapo PC computer, using regular old software anyone could buy, with Popp playing all the instruments, and creating, in his own words, 'real' music for the first time, after years of dissecting and pulling apart sounds, and the results are pretty incredible.
Folks looking for more of that classic Oval sound might definitely be disappointed, but will more likely be pleasantly surprised. Imagine Tortoise, or maybe Battles, fed into a computer, and then reprogrammed, the drums still propulsive, but more scattered and skittery and abstract, almost like post rock free jazz, while guitars aren't strummed so much as allowed to ring out, chime, and all around, various bits of electronics and strange processing transform this new 'rock' Oval into something as unique and original as the Oval we've always loved.
The A-side is made up of longer, more song-like tracks, while the B-side is a bunch of super short snippets, but short and long alike, these songs are all about melody, and rhythm, and harmony, where as old Oval was more about mood and texture, for as abstract as these new tracks are, they are definitely more 'musical', the A-side playing out like some super far out post rock band, the B-side more like some avant solo guitarist, whose guitar is super processed and transformed into something beautifully alien, and subtly electronic, without losing the sense of the organic, the sound of a proper instrument. The shorter tracks, while melodic, are also very percussive and buzzy, almost like a computerized Michael Hedges / Derek Bailey hybrid, effortlessly slipping from tangled scrape and crunch to softly hazy fuzz to heavily processed almost-folk.
It's all definitely a big change for sure, but those old Oval records are pretty much perfect, and impossible to improve upon we think, and these new sounds, these new SONGS, are just as exciting, albeit in their own, obtuse and idiosyncratic, 2010, post 'rock', post glitch, post-Oval fashion.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, cool fancy jackets with a paste on front image (featuring a still from that birds and guitars installation at the Tate Museum in London), and comes with a download coupon as well...
Before we actually listened to this reissue, we didn't expect too much from these fairly obscure Swedish psychedelic underground rockers, having never heard them before, and knowing only that they were an earlier incarnation of another Swedish hippy rock
Listen on: Deezer
Available again, this all-time AQ fave, now in the "Sunbeam Masters" series, limited to 1000 copies in mini-LP sleeve. Here's what we said the last time Sunbeam put this out:
The psychedelic folk fans here at Aquarius (all of us!) are overjoyed that this brilliant obscurity is back in print, again - this time on the UK's Sunbeam label, with a couple more bonus tracks than even the previous expanded edition on Wild Places had!
Originally released in 1970, Linda Perhacs' Parallelograms is a now-not-so-lost gem of lovely, delicate folk-psych songs in line with Joni Mitchell or Heart's folkier moments, gone waaay underground and mystic. For a long long time, although collectors held the record in great esteem, no-one knew anything about Ms. Perhacs at all. When the Wild Places label first reissued the album on cd some years ago they had to do it from a mint vinyl copy of the record. Later, they miraculously managed to track down Linda and got their hands on reel to reels dubbed from the original masters, along with a passel of bonus tracks - half a dozen of 'em, demos and alternate takes, which they included on their second cd edition. Along with that good stuff, some mysteries were answered. It turns out that, for instance, the popularly held belief that Perhacs was from Hawaii was incorrect. But she lived in the Pacific Northwest and California, so that's not too far off, really... They also confirmed that this was indeed her only recording. But if you're only going to make one record, having it be as good as Parallelograms is a neat trick. Her gossamer vocals encounter tripped-out electronic effects and gentle folk-rock backing, transporting the listener to a place not usually or easily reached in this day and age. There's a track or two that gets strangely coffeehouse beatnik on us, and sound a bit dated, but most of this is truely ethereal hippie folk-psych beauty unparallelled. Really nice, and recommended.
This new Sunbeam version ups the ante on the out of print Wild Places one. They've added two more bonus tracks: a 2005 interview on the BBC, and the previously unreleased "I Would Rather Love". It also includes liner notes from Perhacs herself. Recommended.
Ultra limited new lp from guitarist and composer Duane Pitre, a collection of recordings featuring Pitre's bowed harmonic-guitar ensemble, six guitarists, bowing the strings of unconventionally strung guitars, all in 'just intonation', the sounds these players and instruments produce, free of any effects or post- or pre- production fiddling, all the strange overtones, and rhythmic variations, strange melodies and mysterious textures, are utterly divine, extended raga like drones, lush and layered, all the results of the natural interplay between the various notes and tones, and the acoustic properties of the space. All of which are considerable, considering the beauty and otherworldliness of these sounds, quite reminiscent of folks like Phill Niblock, Angus MacLise, Tony Conrad, Henry Flynt, but with its own particular magic, the very Eastern sounding raga vibe is undeniable on some of the tracks, but others are far more abstract, unfurling alternating tones, letting the notes ring out, just the tail ends woven into each other, creating a gorgeous expanse of warm, but spare melody, until the notes grow gradually closer together and finally settle into one another. Some of the tracks sound choral, almost liturgical, while others sounds like an orchestra tuning up stretched into swirling near static drones, the final nearly 12 minute track being perhaps the most beautiful of the bunch, a symphony of metallic buzz, rising and falling swells, buried melodies, the sound slow shifting, but ever changing, dense, and dark, but somehow lush and lovely and glimmering, sun dappled and so serene...
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, includes a download coupon as well.
We had never heard of Greek black metallers Primeval Mass before, they were recommended to us by Roman Saenko, the man behind numerous bad ass Ukrainian black metal hordes: Hate Forest, Drudkh, Dark Ages, Lucifugum, Blood Of Kingu, needless to say, his recommendation was definitely enough for us, and we're glad we checked these guys out. Total classic old school black buzz, frenzied and frantic, insectoid riffs and blasting beats, raw and reverb soaked, heavy as hell but still lo-fi and a little fucked up, when the band is blasting full bore, it totally reminds us of early Immortal or Satyricon, that sort of chaotic black buzz infused with buried melody, a swirling maelstrom of raw Norwegian style blackness, that impossibly manages to be catchy even though it's essentially a furious black cloud of sound. But Primeval Mass add their own vibe to the proceedings, incorporating lurching stretches of Burzumic dirgery, bits of creepy spoken word, woozy droned out guitarscapes, little bursts of lo-fi practice space crunch, super primitive effected guitars, all phaser and flanger, but it all contributes to the glorious black mood and ambience, and the songs, for all their little bits of weirdness, spend most of their time buzzing and blasting and thrashing exploding in grim black gouts of true, kvlt sonic fury. Fucking AWESOME.
Don't get us wrong, we like this record a lot, another classic example of what we love most from Slumberland records releases, beautifully distorted, fuzzy, reverbed girl-group jangle pop! But if it was ONLY Slumberland putting this music out right now (what we have perhaps-not-so-lovingly dubbed: THE NOW SOUND OF 2010) and not many, many other labels like In the Red, Captured Tracks, Sacred Bones, Castle Face, Fat Possum, and even Sub Pop and 4AD, then we might find it just a bit more special. But while we're just about to reach breaking point on this particular sound, our ears couldn't help but perk up on the opening bars of "Feel Sorry For Me" and figure out what was playing. Sort of an expanded take on Black Tambourine's shoe-gazing distorted gloss and the Dum Dum Girls' earnest disaffection, Procedure Club's debut is as catchy and infectious as both of them, if not quite as perfect.
The good news is that there's a new Pulse Emitter, another collection of dreamy analog drift, softly serene meditative new age synthscapes, laced with muted rhythms and softly swirling abstract melodies. The kind of stuff we, and you, can't get enough of. The bad news, is that we COULDN'T get enough of it, literally. This is out of print already, and we only have 4 or 5 copies, after selling half of the batch we got, which was already less than half the number we ordered. So apologies, we tried our best, we figured we might as well list the copies we had so that way, at least a tiny handful of folks will get a copy.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES (why?!?!), nice, thick offset printed covers, and again, already OUT OF PRINT.
Just as the last two Pure Ecstasy 7"s (Easy and Future Nostalgia) went sadly out of print, we are fortunately blessed with this brand new single on the new-to-us Acephale label. "Voices" is the perfect lo-fi chillwave jam of the summer. Equally laidback and exuberant, a catchy love song that has a sort of eighties /sixties walking-with-my-girl-on-the-beach vibe to it, but covered in a fine layer of distorted wah'd guitar. The B-side, "Alexandria", is not so much of a song but an extended slow-jam, with loping bass, and strummed guitar accents with falsetto background vocals before the proper song meanders in, in typical dream pop fashion. We like how with so many bands trying to fit in fast pop and tight hooks to their garage-y sound, these guys just take their time and let the dreaminess and noise coalesce gradually like hazy smoke rings drifting across a shaft of light in a darkened room. Limited!
Rainbows Are Free? Did they really name their METAL band that? Really? Well, they are on the psychedelic/stonery side of things, so that sort of thing kinda makes sense, just like the local band called Glitter Wizard, but still. You gotta really kick ass to pull off having a name like that. And, they do! Bottom heavy, fuzzed out, swinging riffage explodes out of the gate on opener "Slow Train". They don't really let ever let up, with wild, even more fuzz-filled soloing and a vocal style that surprises by morphing from a stoner drawl into what sounds more like a frothing rabid Rob Halford from Judas Priest! Really, on the second track the singer busts out a gruff, staccato style that's more metal than thou, over the top like Halford singing "The Ripper" with a frog in his throat, not at all what we were expecting but pretty damn awesome. That's actually when we knew we really liked this band, that they were willing to roam outside the standard stoner rawk template, the singer especially, screaming and/or crooning as the mood strikes, while the band RIPS right along. As a result, there's moments here that remind us of everything in the stoner/psych/doom/grunge realm from Kyuss to Reverend Bizarre to Skin Yard (or Gruntruck) to Goatsnake to Danava ... From their name on down, it's hard to peg these guys, but we like 'em and their chunky grooves and freaky ways. They get particularly far-out and bad-trippy on "Sinking Ship", and the singer's yowl on "Are You Dead?" even conjures up the shade of Saint Vitus' Scott Reagers.
Recommended to anyone into all the killer stoner stuff we've been giving the thumbs up to lately from the MeteorCity and Small Stone labels, for instance the Solace we listed last week. And, everyone who dug Freedom Hawk oughta dig the heck outta this too!!
Ever since they first hit the scene almost six years ago, Ratatat have consistently brought such a fun and refreshing sound to the table. Using guitars and electronics to make crunchy and catchy instrumental jams with nods to their love of hip-hop production and electronic dance music, yet all delivered in a very stripped down DIY fashion. Their forth album finds these Brooklyn boys sounding as great as ever, which makes sense, as much of this material was culled from the same sessions that produced their last record. It's cool how these guys have somehow created such a unique and instantly recognizable sound, as the moment you hear one of these songs you know without a doubt that it's Ratatat. The way they bring a left-of-center vibe to totally catchy almost top 40/hip-hop sounding beats, transforming them into the perfect jams to just blast crazy loud in the summertime. LP4 again shows off Ratatat's special ability to conjure totally catchy beats and melodies that flow with so much color and warmth. We love it.
Wonderful warm and cozy indie pop from this San Francisco songstress. Ash Reiter has such a beautiful voice, and nice range in songs from the slow and melty to more upbeat and catchy. We're reminded a bit of folks like Feist, Call & Response, The Bird & The Bee, Komeda, Saint Etienne, Au Revoire Simone and The Postmarks. Clocking it at just about an hour, these fifteen songs are packed with some of the most refreshing and effervescent pop we've heard in a long time.
The black and white photo on the cover, of a taxidermed but still quite alarming bat, wings spread, fangs bared, malevolent and mummified, looking like some decaying Victorian museum exhibit, perfectly heralds the organic, psychedelic, and somewhat disturbing dronology to be heard on the disc within. Sometimes creepy, but fascinating and atmospheric. And, in a way, beautiful, like the delicate membrane of the bat's wings.
Look, we don't rave about EVERYTHING on Utech. Just most things on Utech. In fact, we haven't even yet reviewed several the label's previous batch of releases (among them Architeuthis Rex, The Skull Defekts/The Sons Of God, and Ural Umbo), but had to rave about this one (and a couple other cool new titles as well, you'll find highlighted elsewhere on this list: Bassett/Graf and Arcn Templ). RM74 is the solo project of Swiss soundmeister Reto Mader, who also plays in Ural Umbo, Sum of R, and Pendulum Nisum (of which we've only heard the former). And while that Ural Umbo disc Utech recently released was interesting, this solo effort from Mader REALLY caught our ears. Not that it's easy to describe. Abstract and ominous soundscapery, "music" bathed in glowing shimmer and shuddering suspenseful drone. It's all instrumental electro-acoustic experimentation, Mader playing guitars, strings, percussion, piano, electronics, kalimba, organ, synthesizer, and effects... the disc divided up into 11 individual tracks that are different enough to really stand out as "pieces", each one its own mysterious transmission from Mader's outsider imagination, and the spirits that move him. For instance, the opener, appropriately titled "Early Morning Fog", begins with swelling, buzzing drone and hum, mesmerically undulating, eventually adorned with what sounds like the gentle plinking of a fragmented music-box melody... already we're entranced.
Most of the tracks operate upon a basis of electronics, effects, radio static, buzzes, and morse code clicks, the instrumentation not so easily recognizable, though for instance you can definitely hear steel strings of a guitar twanging reverberantly on track three, "Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea", amidst creaking sounds suggestive of a wooden ship at sea, perhaps...
As well as being a great release for Utech, Reflex we think would sound equally at home on the Miasmah label, although it would fall on the "grinding-est" side of their catalog. Other "Recommended If You Like" comparison candidates for this might be the Guillaume Gargaud discs we've reviewed recently, or Gregory Mullen, or the murky microscopic textures of certain Jewelled Antler recordings... Recommended at any rate, regardless of whether we can find adequate analogies for it!
The packaging, unlike most Utech releases, this isn't in a slim sleeve, but in a thicker, all-cardboard digipack style package, with a pocket (a little tight, we must say) inside for the cd, another for a folded insert which depicts that bat in fuller detail. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, also!
Of the hundreds or thousands (or millions?) of metallic post rock bands in the world, there are a select few, who never fail to blow us away, whose records we will buy without a second thought, whose music has proven to be more than just heavy and intricate, whose sound is one we can never seem to get enough of, that perfect blend of crushing and intricate, moody and heavy. One of those bands is most definitely Philly's Rosetta. It's hard to know what to say about these guys that we haven't already, this is the fifth record of theirs we've reviewed, and we gushed like crazy about the first 4, and we're primed to gush about this one too, but then we realized we'd just be repeating ourselves, cuz like we said, what more can we say. These guys are masters of the metallic post rock / post metal / post metallic rock sound, equally adept at howling downtuned Neurosis style crush, as they are at mathy, jangly lopes, and the fact that those two elements are constantly bleeding into one another, well maybe that's what makes these guys so special. Even when they're in full on pound and pummel mode, the melodies and complex arrangements remain, it's not like they're switching from smart and intricate to loud and dumb, it's more like they're simple adjusting certain elements, often the band will slip into an intricate rhythmic workout, no guitars, but those howled vocals will continue on, a strange combination for sure, but it sounds brilliant, and it's that constant push and pull between those two definitely metallic post rock elements that are really the measure of this sort of band, and few do it better than these guys.
There's also the fact that these songs are not just exercises in loud/soft, quite/heavy, they're proper songs, tension and release, slow building, explosive emotional cathartic climaxes, long brooding moody 'verses', the guitars don't just jangle or roar, they shimmer and chime and ring out, the drums are incredible throughout, tight, powerful, restrained when they need to be, but explosive when they don't. The vocals while more often a rough bellow, can just as easily slip into some serious singing, high and melodic. Needless to say, this is a sound we love, and Rosetta are one of our favorite creators and practitioners of said sound. If you need more, check out the other reviews on the website, but better yet, just trust us, check out the sound samples below, and grab one of these. You won't regret it. Especially if your cd shelves already bow under the weight of records by Isis, Pelican, Tides, Angel Eyes, Neurosis, Conifer, Irepress, Souvenir's Young America, Transmission 0, Mouth Of The Architect, Balboa, The Other Side Of The Sky, Baroness, Snowblood, Anapparatus and the like...
It's been nearly 3 years since we've heard from German black metal horde Ruins Of Beverast, who are responsible for two of our favorite black metal records ever, Unlock The Shrine and Rain Upon The Impure, a group that was born out of the demise of another one of our all time BM faves, Nagelfar, whose Virus West record helped define black metal for us, and to this day is still one of those records that all others are compared to, and most, in the face of a record like Virus West, are left wanting.
So with a build up like that, it's fairly obvious that a new Ruins of Beverast is kind of a big deal. Especially after three years.
Thankfully, the brilliantly titled Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite, was more than worth the wait, another twisted amalgamation of lurching black doom, blasting frenzied black metal, and all sorts of other weirdness that is not so easily described. The tracks are long and packed with parts, the opening track pretty much sets the stage, beginning with some super dramatic midtempo doom beneath almost chanted clean vocals, before a cool fuzzy, processed guitar comes in, a weird pop element that sounds totally wrong, but at the same time right at home, before the track lurches to a halt, and the band lumber forth, a trudging black doom behemoth, laced with Filosofem like keyboards, sick guttural vox, weirdly meditative, and trancelike, shifting gears constantly like some sort of post black metal math rock outfit, finally finishing off how it started, more lurching woozy doom pop, more of those super melodic clean vocals, and another burst of that warped fuzz guitar melody. And that's just one track.
The other tracks are separated by short interludes that range from blackened fragments of rumble and crunch, to haunting choral shimmer, to abstract free form drift, but those are seemingly woven into the whole, as if all of Foulest Semen was one continuous musical movement, "God's Ensanguined Bestiaries" is furious blackened thrash, those impossibly inhuman vocals riding atop frenzied riffage and lightning speed blasts, before the sound shifts dramatically, and that weird melodic fuzz guitar returns (sounding more like something you'd hear on a White Stripes record of all things), but the fact that it's tangled up in a chaotic jumble of crumbling filthy blackness, and haunting gothic doom, lots of moments here remind us of Norwegians Code as well, that same sort of blackened Interpol, or Metal Joy Division vibe infused into their grim black fury. "Mount Sinai Moloch" is even weirder, brittle doom guitars, pounding muffled industrial percussion, garbled alien vocals, spidery clean guitars, all very spacious and stretched out, but eventually, things do get more grim and blackly propulsive. The rest of the record is rife with stuff you'd never expect to find on a black metal record, be it bits of gorgeous gloomy dour pop, huge heaving slabs of almost orchestral sounding heaviness, soaring strings (or what sounds like strings), spaced out clouds of reverbed vocals, fractured electronics, moody buzz drenched slowcore, but all of those elements are seamlessly incorporated into the bands twisted black heaviness, a dizzying hybrid for sure, one that is hard to imagine would be appealing to your standard black metal / black doom fan, but for the rest of us, Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite is gloriously idiosyncratic, furious and fucked up, freaky and avant garde, blackened and doomic, but at the same time an incredible, and incredibly catchy (black / doom) metal record, and even though this technically came out last year, we still might have to offer this up as a contender for metal record of THIS year, black, doom, or otherwise...
Got something here for fans of Jex Thoth, the No Neck Blues Band, AND weird religious cults... there's probably some overlap there, we imagine! The Ajna Offensive, best known for black metal releases by the likes of Deathspell Omega and Funeral Mist, and also that fancy Bobby Beausoleil box set not long ago, now bring us the Sabbath Assembly, singing "glorious songs of praise to Lucifer, Satan, Christ, and Jehovah". Huh? These are indeed REAL hymns, and all from one church. Some would say, cult. The explanation: ever heard of the Process Church Of The Final Judgment? This is their music, "reProcessed" by a contemporary psychedelic (super)group of underground musicians, including Jex Thoth of, um, Jex Thoth on vocals, David "Xtian" Nuss (NNCK, Angelblood, Under Satan's Sun), and Randall Dunn (Master Musicians Of Bukkake)!�So you can expect this will be ominous and esoteric.
The subject of a recent Feral House book, the Process Church was a '70s phenomenon, of course, a kind of apocalyptic Jesus-freak cult with radical political dimensions. We're told they wore black cloaks (always cool) and had German shepherds (really?). We first heard of 'em years ago thanks to George Clinton's band Funkadelic, who for a while in the early '70s were, if not followers, at least supporters of the Process Church, who presumably had a chapter in Detroit. Several Funkadelic lps feature Process Church teachings (propaganda?) on the sleeves. The music of the Sabbath Assembly doesn't sound much like Funkadelic, though. Not quite that funky! Nor are they metal as you might assume from the label... it's actually often pretty, mellow stuff, presumably sounding close to what the Process Church folks themselves sounded like when singing the Lord's (or Lucifer's?) praises back in the day, these hymns very hippie sounding, churchy and folky, but also garagey, with twangy guitar and groovy organ, building into throbbing rhythmic psych workouts. It even gets a bit jazzy in spots ("The Power That Is Love"). Still, while this isn't heavy in the guitar dep't the way Jex Thoth's regular band is, it is definitely "heavy" in terms of subject matter. Jex is the perfect vocalist for this, her dramatic, devotional delivery at once both innocent and intense, sincere and sinister. Her exaltations and exhortations rise from a delicate whisper to commanding, demanding heights, sometimes unaccompanied, at others, with backing vocals reinforcing the message.
Be warned, this ain't Sunday school. When Jex asks "will you serve the will of God?", it seems like you had darn well better answer (yes!). Dunno if the Process Church is still around (haven't read the book yet) but if they are, there's a good chance this record might recruit some converts... And at least, it's certainly making us curious to read that book. Creepy, yes, and quite catchy too, we can understand why these folks were drawn to reinterpreting these songs. Though of course curious about what the original source material was (lyrics? vintage recordings?). Perhaps it says somewhere inside the lp packaging, we haven't checked for liner notes as yet. This was produced in association with Feral House, so it would seem the Sabbath Assembly had access to whatever inside archival info there was on the Process Church's musical activities.
As "religious" recordings go, this is what we dig! For fans of Jex of course, and Yahowah 13, Family Jams, Sounds Of Ascension, and other "cult" audio... recommended! For now, vinyl-only, 180 gram, gold-colored. There will also be a compact disc version, out later this month sometime.
It's tough enough keeping up with just John Zorn's output (which, we haven't been, even) let alone keeping up with every last thing he puts out on his label Tzadik. We'd like to, but we can't. Fortunately, though, we did (eventually) take notice of this release, which actually came out at the beginning of last year (see what we mean?. We gave it a listen maybe 'cause of the high concept: JEWISH METAL. Well why not? There's been Satanic metal, and Christian metal, and Saft's project surely isn't the first instance of Jewish metal, there's bands from Israel of course, and heck KISS was probably the first Jewish metal band, though of course they didn't make it the whole concept like it is here! Eclectic and intense, Black Shabbis is a dark, devastating disc of shreddtastic songs, or sometimes sheer doomy drone-dirgery, with overt Judeocentric themes. Furthermore, this is metal done by downtown NYC avant garde types, which makes it all the more interesting and improv-y in parts.
Longtime Zorn associate Saft, whose past recordings for Tzadik include a piano trio tribute to Bob Dylan, is not only a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist (here playing guitar, bass, organ, Mellotron, Optigan, and synth), but was also apparently something of a metalhead growing up, or so we must assume (as this is billed as a "back to his roots" recording). He, and the lineup he's pulled together to play this stuff (which includes Trevor Dunn from Mr. Bungle/Fantomas/Secret Chiefs 3), certainly display hella metallic chops, this is HEAVY. The 13+ minute "Kielce" sounds like Khanate, plus machine guns! Other tracks are thrashier, or more melodic, or stoner/bluesy, or neo-classical... this disc part Krallice, part Hammers Of Misfortune, part SUNNO))) or Aun, with Slayer and of course Sabbath lurking in the shadows. Quite a mix, but it works, and is nothing if not unique amongst today's avant-metal acts. Being on Tzadik probably limited its metal cred/exposure, but this isn't just for Tzadik/Zorn fans, or those interested in "Jewish" music. While it makes sense Zorn would put this out, it's almost too bad it wasn't on Profound Lore or Southern Lord, instead! And then we could have had multiple limited edition colored vinyl die hard editions by now...
While Ty Segall may be as prolific as they come when it comes to 7"s, splits, and collaborations, a new one seemingly coming out monthly, weekly even, faster then we can keep up with, there's still something so special, thought out, and so damn satisfying about Segall's full-length albums proper.
Especially this new one. No longer can you just reduce a summarization of his music as 'way blown out lo-fi garage radness.' Although that's definitely some of it, but Segall has begun to widen his scope in such thrilling ways. Melted finds his sound more punchy, a dizzying mix of psychedelic, pop, surf, gritty rhythm & blues, punk rock, in fact the album opener is a perfect example, it begins all fey and jangly, but then the guitar kicks in, surprisingly heavy and crunchy, swaggery and sorta bad ass, big loud drums, and then suddenly, a super tripped out squiggly synth solo! The second track too, begins all acoustic guitar, until in comes a groovy walking bassline, and it's total sixties jangle pop that finishes off in a flurry of fluttery flutes....
From the very beginning of the record, the whole thing takes such awesome twists and turns, getting all tweaked and super far out right when you might expect straight ahead jangle, and getting all poppy and heartfelt, right when it sounds like it was gonna explode into chaotic whatthefuckness. Alongside influences like The Gories, Thee Headcoats, and The Sonics, you can even hear some Led Zeppelin, albeit stripped of its excess and indulgence and boiled down to its primitive and riveting core, kind of what it felt like when we heard The White Stripes for the first time. Not reinventing the wheel for sure, but instead pressing the pedal to the metal and spinning all four wheels in a frenzy of unfettered creativity, OWNING these sounds, making totally original music out of borrowed bits, and blowing away so many of the bands around him in the process. Along with that intensity, Segall has a crazy knack for incredible hooks, deep rooted melodies, crafting perfect pop all wrapped up in fiery, fierce rocking crunch.
"Girlfriend" may just be song of the year! It's impossible not to listen to it over and over from the beginning with Ty growling and then it bursting into one of the most catchy, sweat inducing, body shaking songs ever, the sort of jam you would want to put on every mix tape you make. As always, Segall writes and plays just about every note of music himself on the album, but there are some nice moments where his friends lend a helping hand, like John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees laying down some FLUTE on "Caesar", and Mike Donovan from Sic Alps adding vox, as well as some guitar on a couple tracks, including the absurd blown out brilliance of the simple yet so totally addictive "Mike D's Coke". And on tracks like "Imaginary Person" it's like this awesome blend of early Adam & The Ants crossed with The Misfits for an all out sonic showdown.
Segall has a found a way to bring together primitive and powerful stripped down Bo Diddley-like energy and a very honest and sincere emotional undercurrent in his songs that convinces us that once this latest lo-fi garage revival dies down, Segall will still be making engaging, moving and truthful sounds. He is for real!
Ultra limited picture disc 10" from this damaged and demented avant black doom outfit featuring former Mayhem frontman Maniac, Niklas Kvarforth from black metal outfit Shining, and Current 93's David Tibet among others. One side features an introductory collage created by David Tibet / Current 93, that the band used for an intro at their shows, and it's classic Current 93, a sort of demented slowly decaying gypsy folk, with Tibet's increasingly anxious and frantic vocalizing, his vocals multitracked so the track builds to a frenzied climax, with multiple Tibets howling and shrieking "Who will deliver me from myself?!". The other two tracks are alternate versions of tracks on Skandinavisk Misantropi, one a demo, and one an alternate mix, but they kind of sound better here, the guitars more raw, the sound more fierce and feral, the vocals SICK, the band unfurling lurching lumbering doomy blackness, but laced with unlikely melodies, "Slow Pain Coming" manages to be fucked up and hateful, the vocals especially harsh, but the music is surprisingly melodic, and there's an awesome breakdown partway through where the band lurches and starts and stops, while the vocals just gargle and rasp and howl. The demo of "A Valley Below" is way more low fidelity, but again, it sounds so much more fucked up and frightening, the vocals especially again, even more inhuman, makes you wonder what they did on the record proper, cuz here, they just ooze and drip, super intense and freaky, perfectly suiting the low slung slither underneath. Makes us want to go back and listen to the full length again, Or just keep listening to these two tracks over and over.
Super nice artwork on the picture disc, an appropriately gruesome painting on one side, and an original David Tibet painting on the other. LIMITED TO 777 COPIES!!!
It was pretty impossible to not want to hate this band. The hype was unprecedented, they didn't even have a record out, and blogs and magazines and newspapers were hailing them as not just the next big thing, but the only new band that mattered. M.I.A snapped them up and signed them to her Mom + Pop label, and every tastemaker that mattered were singing the praises of this 'electro-metal' duo, so of course anyone with a punk rock or subversive anti-mainstream bone in their body, recoiled, and already knew, somehow, that the record would be a piece of shit. But guess what, it's totally not. It's actually pretty great. Listening to Sleigh Bells now, it's easy to see why people were freaking out, with nothing but live shows to go on, this stuff is total hipster dance party manna, big beats, stuttering and loping, big crunchy super distorted riffs, swirling synths, and woozy sing songy almost double-dutch style vocals. The similarities to M.I.A are undeniable, the same sort of beats and vocal cadences, makes a lot of sense they would find each other, and no doubt anyone who digs M.I.A. will probably like this too. Fun and funky, hooky and a little bit heavy, rambunctious, sweaty, groovy, definitely a perfect party record, we can almost imagine the sorts of herky jerky YouTube dancing this stuff will inspire, but you know what, fuck it, fuck the haters, this stuff is awesome, it's maybe not as important and genre shattering as some folks might want to believe, but it killer, and whether we wanted to or not, we find ourselves listening to this a LOT.
Still seems so strange though that one half of the Sleigh Bells duo is the guitarist from metalcore combo Poison The Well...
Ohh La La! You can always count on Stereo Total for absolute pure fun served up with sass and sparkle. With their love of suave and sassy French pop this German duo have long delivered perfect cocktail party jams over the years and with Baby Ouh! they show they still have their mojo working. It's hard not to just let go and have a carefree great time when you hear their electronic beats and snappy vocal delivery. Whether paying homage to Divine and Andy Warhol or covering Kraftwerk and Brigitte Fontaine, this is a record that shows you can translate great taste into infectious pop music. In lots of ways Stereo Total are like the musical equivalent of our favorite boutique thrift stores, immaculately picking the best parts of the past with snazz and style and bringing excitement and new life to those aged artifacts. So fun!
Utterly gorgeous and meticulously crafted sounds infused with warmth and a glimmering, strangely tender vibe. Almost like a more melodic Jasper TX or Machinefabriek, Ben Swire intertwines traditional instruments with field recordings and electronics to create a totally seamless sound that has been the soundtrack to constant drifting, dazed daydreaming.
While Swire resides right here in San Francisco, it actually makes a lot of sense that this was released by the great Australian label Preservation, who have proven to have such immaculate taste in soft focus underground sounds (Eddie Marcon, Caethua, Aaron Martin, etc.). But we also think he would be a perfect fit for the roster of Root Strata, as his music really taps into a similarly perfect hazy, delicate, droney yet melodic sensibility. We hear hints of so many artists that we love like Philip Jeck, Es, The Fun Years, Part Timer, Mountains, as well as a more organic interpretation of early recordings by folks like Mum, Opiate and Markus Archer. While we are reminded of all those great artists, there is something so striking about Swire's soft touch, understated and assured with some pleasant surprises of a slightly darker nature, subtly tense and ominous, which unfold in the later half of the record. But for sure this the perfect soundtrack for staring out the window on long road trips as the scenery washes by and your mind floats away in a million different directions. So beautiful!
We're so happy that Light in The Attic reissued this, a stellar, newly remastered entry from 1967 in the amazing back catalog of one of our all-time favorite jazz guitarists from the sixties and seventies, Gabor Szabo. As a matter of fact, he was the first true guitar hero for Scott here at AQ, the reason Scott started playing guitar - thus Szabo is indirectly responsible for The Alps!
Releasing an amazing string of albums on Impulse, Skye, Blue Thumb and CTI, Szabo's masterful blending of eastern raga, gypsy and flamenco influences from his native Hungary with western jazz, mod, pop and rock influences created some of the most psych-inflected jazz grooves of the sixties. We suppose if you were only to get one of his records, Jazz Raga is arguably the best albeit strangest of the bunch. Featuring eight originals and three covers (including a version of the Rolling Stones "Paint It Black"), Szabo recorded the whole album with a group, including the funkiest of session drummers, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, then overdubbed sitar on all but two of the tracks. Of course by this time, the sitar was becoming THE instrument of choice in western popular music to channel a mystical spellbinding sound, but the manner in which Szabo employs it in the overall compositions of the tracks here is at times, lyrical, dizzying and truly wacked out. For one thing, the sitar is never quite in tune with the actual songs, making some of the melodies seem a bit warped in a way which is difficult to pinpoint. It's not an off-putting effect, quite the opposite. The slightly off interweaving of tonal shades and melody lines actually enhances the otherwordly mystical vibe on what might otherwise be perceived as a psychsploitative gimmick. Of course Szabo's meticulously intricate but seemingly simple guitar phrasings don't need much help from the sitar (he wasn't called The Spellbinder for nothing!). The sitar just provides an elemental coloring allowing a deeper immersion into whatever Szabo is seeking out, whether it be a quiet call to focus ("Walking on Nails"), a monster mod groover ("Sophisticated Wheels"), or the introduction of one of his signature tunes ("Mizrab"), a driving mantra-like tune of tablas and hypnotic droning open-tuned guitars that never tires. It's a song he would return to a few more times in his relatively short career (he died in 1982). Hopefully, more of his great records will be reissued as lovingly as this. Includes a 40 page booklet with lots of notes and pictures. Highest Recommendation!
Upon receiving the debut release from T H E M A Y S (yes, the group specifies that there be a space between each letter)!, we were struck by the aroma of tempera paint emanating from the hand-made fold-out packaging. It immediately stirred memories of fingerpainting in elementary school, and in turn, the untethered nature of childhood creativity. Interestingly, T H E M A Y S is a project based out of a school of another sort, but with a seemingly similar sense of free-flowing exploratory openness. Nestled in the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center, the San Francisco Urban Music Program is "dedicated to teaching progressive and adventurous music-making of all kinds" to youths and adults. Yes, that description sounds right up our alley, doesn't it? And while it's actually not geographically so (i.e, "up our alley", heh heh!), it is still pretty close and in town (the SNBC is a wonderful community hub located a few blocks from Ocean Beach in the Outer Sunset district here in SF). Anyhoo, KNOWFI was composed in this supportive environment by eight students and instructors. The latter includes the fine Jon Bernson with whom we're all well familiar from his other musical pursuits (namely Ray's Vast Basement which morphed into Exray's a couple of years ago, and his duo with Tim Cohen called Window Twins). He is in fact the captain of this UMP ship, having founded it in back in '97.
Although the cd-r is indexed into twelve tracks, and each one is titled individually, it plays as one continuous 40-minute soundscape of lulling swells of dreamy haze. So, we'd recommend that you sit right down, settle in for a spell, and allow the heavily processed and densely layered drones, fleeting melodies, found sounds and other noise generators melt together into every crack and crevice of your ear drums. Awash with ever-evolving warbly, woobly wonderfulness!
The return of UK based one man ritualistic doomdrone shamen Tenhornedbeast, and another collection of abject darkness, grim sonic mystery, folk flecked dronemusic and epic black ambience, and as in the past, things have definitely shifted during the extended period of silence between this new record and the last. The very first 10HB record we had heard, was recommended to us as "epic, sprawling primitive doom/drone" which at the time was all we needed to hear, and indeed, that's precisely what it was, but with each record, 10HB's sound mutated and morphed, into something new, not always super dramatic, more an ever evolving sonic darkness, definitely dronemusic, but not so much primitive, a more composed sort of doomy black ambience, a post industrial drift that definitely leaned more toward drone than doom, but also more toward industrial then metal, which makes sense that he's found a home on Cold Spring alongside Toroidh, Laibach, Nordvargr, Prurient, Von Thronstahl, Wicked King Wicker and the like.
And in fact, the first track here, the evocatively titled "Reaching For The Stars We Blind The Sky", finds the sound of Tenhornedbeast definitely moving even further in a sort of industrial direction. It begins like we would have expected, dark and mysterious, spaced out and shimmery, with keening high end drifts, underpinned by deep rumbles, muted downtuned guitar buzz, feedback, all the sounds gauzy and grey, until about halfway through the guitars begin to grind the riffs crumbling and distorted and the drums kick in, not a straight rhythm, and not really free either, a bit martial here and there, but they seem to wander and drift, stumbling through a bleak field of stretched out tones and layered streaks of howling feedback, slipping from minimal and spare to chaotic and aggressive and back again, a little bit doomy, but more like some blackened neo-folk. A 12 minute jam that really could have stretched out to fill up the whole record. But instead, the rest of the disc drifts into deep, tranquil dronemusic, laced with birdsong and melancholic melodies drenched in reverb, downtuned bass thrum driven creeps, held aloft by skeletal percussion, and again swathed in blurred effects and layered drones, heavy sure, but more mesmerizing and trancelike, string laden neo-folk, with haunting slowed down samples and disembodied voices, clouds of cymbal shimmer, and grinding mechanical guitarscapes, with hypnotic machinelike rhythms, swirling minimal lullaby like interludes, and finally the 20 minute title track, slow glacial riffage pulled and stretched until the riffs becomes long layers of undulating low end, billowing distorted bass like some sort of sonic avalanche, everything washed out and almost shoegazey, instead of getting heavier and heavier, it gets more and more shimmery and fuzzy, booming gongs, swirling effects, all wound around a simple, downtuned bassline, a slowed down doomic anti-groove, that creeps and crawls and finally drifts into the ether.
Gorgeous packaging, an exquisitely designed 6 panel digipack, all browns and golds and greys and metallic inks...
As much as we dig the collaborations between Lindstrom and Prins Thomas, we're beginning to think we might like these two Norwegians even more on their own, separately. With his latest solo outing, Prins Thomas has reminded us how masterful he is at creating glacial and spacious dance beats infused with waves of blissed out krautdisco. More so than on his collaborations with Lindstrom, Thomas demonstrates that he has a really nice range of sounds in his arsenal, with subtle hints of prog, psych and krautrock all mixed into a blend of his unique electronica. Lots of this record makes us think of some amazing remixed version of the cosmic kraut classic recording by Riechmann, or how Jonas Reinhardt might sound if they really allowed their more flowing and dance-y side to run wild. You can tell that Prins Thomas has a deep love of groups like Neu, Harmonia and The Phantom Band as much as he does of the space disco stylings of Giorgio Moroder, Patrick Cowley and Cerrone.
So many epic and nuanced tracks here, with one of the standouts being "Wendy Not Walter", you have to love the nod to Wendy/Walter Carlos. Further proof that Prins Thomas is not only a student of great electronic music but also one of its best creators these days!
By far the best electronic sounds we've heard come out of San Francisco in a long time, and damn while this is only an e.p it may just be another major contender for electronic record of the year. Ben Thompson creates super saturated prismatic Technicolor colorful beats that swirl and flow and shimmer so infectiously. Like a standout track on a Kompakt Total compilation, this is electronic music that is as much about the dancefloor as it is a fully satisfying sonic experience. Like Gui Boratto or those early Aphex Twin and Plaid records we loved so much, the sounds on Time Traveler incorporate everything we loved about the heyday of IDM into a more current sonic template. There is something so flawless about Thompson's execution that really makes this record stand out, as it has the potential to appeal to both fans of dancemusic and those of us who would rather just put our headphones on and nod along to the music. We can't wait to hear more from Thompson, but for now we are blasting this ep over and over and it sounds so damn good each and every time!
Holy shit are we glad this thing finally got a much deserved reissue. Originally available as a super limited cassette, the two copies that managed to worm their way into the store were immediately snapped up by Andee and former aQuarian Cameron. Their gain was certainly the rest of the world's misfortune, because some of us couldn't stop listening to Cameron's copy before he jetted off to New York. For the longest time we could only conjure memories of these songs in our heads. Thou's contribution here, the four part epic "Abandoned", is some of the most majestic, beautiful, and psychedelic doom metal to emerge in quite some time. It also manages to be ugly as fuck. But damn, these songs just SOAR, everything is wrapped up in a blanket of ultra dense distortion with glacial drumming and some seriously unbelievable throat shredding goodness, the kind that makes mothers everywhere wonder what would make good boys want to do such things to their vocal chords. Storming out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Thou follow proudly in the tradition of their sludgey, thick as tar forefathers like Eyehategod, Crowbar, and the rest of the usual suspects, but there's definitely something about these guys that stands on its own, not to mention a pretty heavy black metal influence. While thankfully avoiding falling into an "indie" metal trap, Thou nonetheless successfully incorporates a blissed out melodicism that only a fool would deny.
Leech's contribution, an untitled 20+ minute monster of a track, is mighty impressive as well. The band hails from Salem, Oregon, and while we don't know anything about them other than this, it's pretty clear we have some research to do, because you all know how we love our Cascadian black metal. The song winds all over the place with super melodic guitar leads and some great basslines (which you can actually HEAR, unlike many black metal bands). The tortured vocals will definitely hit the spot for anyone digging Weakling, WITTR, you know, that kind of thing. The song is so melancholy, but it just sounds totally unstoppable and out for blood, we really hope to hear more from these guys soon.
The classy white record comes housed in a nice looking full color gatefold with a screenprinted poster, a crusty patch, and whaddya know, a free download card. And while it's great having this album available once again, it's still limited to a mere 750 copies with no plans for a cd release, so act fast!
Pretty sure we don't have to do much in the way of introducing this mammoth, UFO-nic Italian trio by now. They've only chalked up, what, at least two past AQ Records Of The Week honors? We've loved all of their records (and collaborations) and this latest opus was eagerly awaited, especially after seeing 'em play live for the first time here in SF this past winter, which was, wow, HEAVY. Of course. And Eve does not disappoint.
We've described this outfit as "druggy doom-from-space" and this slipcased new disc is yet another excellent (but different) example of their cosmic and compelling sounds. Rather than descending from outer space to jam out on Earth, this time it definitely seems like you're riding with UFOmammut INTO the deeps of space, being swept along on the cosmic rays, into some sort of swirling spinning black hole vortex, kinda like the psychedelic beginning to those old Dr. Who TV episodes. After a dramatic intro (huge monolithic thudding... swooshing space-FX sounds... Hawkwind blowing... feedback and distortion) it's a slow build, the first couple tracks starting off relatively quietly and calmly, up to a point, generating unsettling ambient atmospheres, with spacey keyboards, faintly chanted vocals, and restrained percussive rhythms building up... and up... to the massive heavy guitar riffage you know is about to be unleashed, and soon IS. Wham! Blast off! Track two hints at the band's '70s Italian prog ancestry, with drifting female (?) vocals, and piano, before the tribal drum pound kicks in full bore, and it's dooooom in SPAAAAAAACE time, kids! Like music for martial marching Martians, or armies of astronauts in jackbooted spacesuits. It's hypnotic and heavy, indeed. The next track dispenses with the buildup, jumping right into the fray...
The five (long) tracks on Eve tend to seamlessly segue from one to the next, it's almost like one piece, stretching to infinity... it's actually 45 minutes total but if it could go on and on we'd let it, happy to get lost in UFOmammut's deeps of space (and the deeps of their bass!). A beautiful thing to our ears (remember in a past review, when we told the story of how we accidentally played a UFOmammut dvd disc, thinking it was the cd, and were mesmerized by the dvd menu music, not realizing it was on an endless loop?).
Yeah, it's a trip listening to this band, and quite possibly the "trip" they're evoking isn't into outer space as we've been suggesting, but rather inner space. Of course it is, inside your mind, their music at work on your imagination. This aspect is highlighted when in when in the final track, the beat goes into a double-tlme, and a buried bedlam of chattering voices infiltrate the sound-field. It's like Electric Wizard, or Sleep, trapped in the asylum. That feeling is accentuated by the use of insistent repetitive piano chords and piercing electronic tones out of some psychological suspense thriller.
We mentioned that we saw 'em live, and that they are a trio, yet it's sorta hard to believe when you listen to this... sounds more like hundreds of people were involved, massed in ritual observance... or maybe no people at all, no human beings, just the spaceship's onboard computer gone haywire HAL style...
As of late anyone with even a passing interest in the blues has had plenty of reasons to rejoice. Almost every list we are blessed with something vinyl on Monk or Mississippi, but even with the wealth of material available, there are still plenty of lesser known artists who will go unheard, due to their obscurity, lack of recordings, or inability to fit comfortably within the predominantly white myths that have, for better and/or worse, shaped the history of blues music and its legacy. That's why it's so great having this awesome new comp focusing on some of the less influential but still powerful bluesmen. With a whopping 24 tracks, this collection spans from 1923 (with, reportedly, the first recorded use of a guitar slide, or more appropriately, knife, as wielded by Sylvester Weaver) to 1929, one of the most noteworthy of years for recorded blues music. Some of these musicians you may recognize, like Ishman Bracey (whose Suitcase Full Of Blues we reviewed not too long back), but many of them are just names we've read about, and others still are completely new to us. No matter, it's all prime stuff carefully selected to help show us what we have been missing. Carrying on in the tradition of legendary labels like Yazoo and Arhoolie, Sub Rosa has done us a great favor with this one, and we're hoping even more labels will take a cue and excavate essential recordings from the past. Highly recommended.
Now on vinyl!! Here's some of what we said when we reviewed the compact disc version, though as before the programming of the cd and vinyl versions differ somewhat, but even if the track list isn't quite the same (the cd had 5 more songs), the general thrust of the following review still stands:
It's beginning to appear as though Subliminal Sounds' well of amazing undiscovered Thai Beat music might be bottomless! We were a bit surprised when they managed to pull off a second excellent collection of Thai bubblegum psych tunes from yesteryear, but now a *third*?? "Is it just as good", you ask? Well, heck yeah, it is! It doesn't seem as though they culled the best for the first, or even the second, collection. This third volume may in fact be the best - though it's hard to choose. This one has about the same ratio of purely weird and inimitably Thai "pop" to off-kilter covers of your favorites from the golden era of rock, but add into that mix a great deal of seventies funk & disco and even some Santana-esque rock, all with a Thai twist and lots of fun. In addition to all the cool music on this collection is album's cover, which looks as though it were taken from a '70s Thai B-grade horror film. A "scary" looking dude in blue slacks, red sweater, and dracula fangs is lightly held back (or is he dancing with?) two sexy Thai girls wearing matching green skirts and white knee high boots. WOW! is our reaction to that, and the whole disc as well! ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 2+2=5, THE "Into The Future..." (Spittle) cd 21.00 ARCHITEUTHIS REX "Dark As The Sea" (Utech) cd 14.98 AUBRY, GILLES "s6tr8" (Winds Measure Recordings) cd 12.98 BASSHATERS "Harsh Lovers Sick Zoo" (Yik Yak) cassette 5.00 BOSSE-DE-NAGE "s/t" (Flenser) cd 9.98 DADAWAH "Peace And Love" (Wild Flower) cd/lp 16.98/24.00 DIVORCE "s/t" (Optimo) 10" 13.98 DURUTTI COLUMN "LC" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98 DURUTTI COLUMN "The Return Of The Durutti Column" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98 ECHOSPACE "Liumin" (Modern Love) 2cd 15.98 ENDTABLES, THE "s/t" (Drag City) cd 14.98 FEROCIOUS FEW "Juices" (Birdman) cd 12.98 FNS "S/t" (Miasmah) cd/lp 15.98/19.98 FOOT VILLAGE "Anti-Magic" (Upset The Rhythm) lp 17.98 HEALTH "Disco 2" (Lovepump United) cd 14.98 JJ "N� 3" (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98 KEEPAWAY "Baby Style" (Lefse) lp 14.98 KNIGHT SCHOOL "Revenger" (Make A Mess) lp 14.98 MAGIC BULLETS "s/t" (Mon Amie) lp 14.98 MAX PLANCK "Kill The Pain" (Buried By Time And Dust) lp 32.00 NEON "Oscillator" (Spittle) cd 21.00 NORTH SEA, THE "Bloodlines" (Type) lp 19.98 PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THE "Say No To Love" (Slumberland) 7" 5.98 PERNICE BROTHERS "Goodbye Killer" (Ashmont) cd 10.98 ROEDELIUS "The Diary Of The Unforgotten" (Bureau) cd 17.98 ROSE, JACK & GLENN JONES "The Things That We used To Do" (Strange Attractions) dvd 20.00 ROSE, JACK WITH D. CHARLES SPEER & THE HELIX "Ragged And Right" (Thrill Jockey) cd ep/12" 11.98/14.98 SWORDS & SANDLES / VHOLTZ / WOMAN'S WORTH / ETTRICK "s/t" (self released) cassette 5.00 TRANS AM "Thing" (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98 URAL UMBO "s/t" (Utech) cd 14.98 V/A "Clicks And Cuts 5.0" (Mille Plateax) cd 17.98 V/A "Head Over High Heels: Strong & Female 1927-1959" (Trikont) cd 17.98 V/A "Karl Rove: Courage And Concequence" (Seismic.Wave) lp 14.98 V/A "Milano New Wave 1980-83" (Spittle) cd 21.00 V/A "The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol.II Ethnic Music Classics; 1925-48" (Outernational) 2lp 31.00 V/A "To Scratch Your Heart: Early Recordings From Istanbul" (Honest Jons) 2cd 26.00 V/A "Zulu Stomp!! South African Garage Beats!!" (Nosmoke) cd 25.00 VANGELIS "Who Killed The Dragon? (The BYG Sessions)" (Finders Keepers) 12" 14.98 WE LIKE CATS "Proper Eats" (Marriage) lp 13.98 WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY "Against Love" (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98 ZUMPANO, JASON "Room And Mansion" (Inflight) cd-r 14.98 _______________________________________________________________________ Please place your order via our website. [1] We will contact you to verify your order and let you know when it will be shipped. Please note that occasionally it may take a day or two for us to reply. We are not a faceless bunch of computers replying to your order -- we are human beings! [2] If we are out of some of your items and we think we will get them within the same week, we can wait to ship. Or... If it's going to be more than a few days to complete your order, we will ship what we have and then will contact you as the remainders arrive. [ note ] Due to the everchanging nature of the independent record business, we are not responsible for listed price changes (due to supplier price changes) and often cannot update our site fast enough to reflect these changes, but we will always try to let you know of any differences.
Yet another fantastic collection of fascinating sights and sounds from Sublime Frequencies, this time from Southeast Asia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, etc... filmed by Robert Millis, he of Climax Golden Twins, as well as a frequent Sublime Frequencies contributor / collaborator / curator and an avid collector of world music and lost 78s. And like past SF dvds, My Friend Rain is another fantastical journey through the streets of Southeast Asia, a travelogue of street musicians, town squares, temples, forests, people's homes, markets, food stalls, performances are interspersed with more seemingly mundane occurrences, which somehow still seem magical, a priest sweeping out a rainswept temple floor, food being assembled while a band plays wildly in the background, a glorious vocal and drum cacophony, crashing cymbals, and there's also some serious weirdness, a strange selection of statues, some all bloody with their guts pulled out, meat being chopped on a cart, boats being driven through barely enough water to keep them afloat... Like a series of abstract short films woven together into a fantastically impressionistic musical portrait of places and people. One of the coolest moments a guy who plays this incredible circular drum set, all these tiny drums hanging in a row, totally encircling the performer, and he plays them super fast, with his hands, and the sounds are so divine, somewhere between gamelan and steel drums. Would love to get a whole record of just that.
There's so much to see, definitely worth rewatching.
The dvd is also accompanied by a cd, a soundtrack, featuring all the music featured in the film, popular, traditional, culled from live performances, lp archives and old cassettes, including that amazing circular drum piece (the instrument is called a Hsiang Waing), as well as the blind musician who opens and closes the film, playing a strange guitar with a metal bowl affixed to the neck for percussion, there's also a gorgeous song performed with a small leaf held between the musicians fingers and played like a reed, and of course some Asian pop songs, fuzzy, poppy, funky, groovy, such good stuff. Like all Sublime Frequencies release, so very recommended.
Some of you aQ folk-headz out there might remember Rick Tomlinson's first project Voice of the Seven Woods. Well Tomlinson is back with a slightly new band name and a drastically different sound. Voice of the Seven Thunders have plugged into some big amps and expanded into a fiery, heavy rocking trio. A huge shift from the quiet woodland finger-picking of Tomlinson's old outfit, the addition of a bassist and drummer bring the project to a whole new level of pretty straight-shootin' rock. Bluesy baselines plod on and on into a Blue Cheer-type groove, layers of strummed guitar add to the bed of fuzz that shimmer below soaring, neverending solos... Really, the ripping solos never end, not sure if that's a good or bad thing. The trio touch on some more ethnic or Eastern sounding territory, we're hearing a touch of North African flair, think Sublime Frequencies meets Sylvester Anfang.� We love the few, nice quiet moments of acoustic reflection that break up the heavy rockin' momentum of most of the tracks. "Cylinders", one of the quieter pieces, opens with distant flute and slowly rising synth wash, only to slowly crescendo into a strummy, cosmic commune jam. The album comes to a close with "Disappearances", a conventional classic rock sounding jammer, complete with proper lyrics and vocal harmonies.�Though the band have made quite a drastic aesthetic shift, we think fans of VOT7W will be just as enthusiastic about VOT7T, I mean who can really deny some heavy, old fashion blown out psychedelic rock n' roll?
Probably best known, at least around here, as the man behind pioneering pop ambient project Gas, as well as the head honcho of Kompakt Records, Wolfgang Voigt has been making gorgeous experimental minimal techno of all stripes for years, from muted minimal thump, to ethereal electronic psychedelia, it all bears Voigt's unique sonic stamp, and we've dug pretty much all of it. So were were both intrigued and excited to discover Voigt had recorded a piano record, his take on 20th century classical, taking modern composition and filtering it through his distinctive aesthetic, we definitely didn't know what to expect, but it probably wasn't this.
Imagine Conlon Nancarrow's player pianos redefined as modern minimal techno, and you'd be getting close, or maybe a robotic electrified Lubomyr Melnyk melded with simple 4/4 techno, and then stripped down to its very essence, simple looped piano figures are locked into endless motorik grooves, while a simple propulsive pulse drives the track, totally intense and mesmerizing, the piano parts slightly atonal, adding a weird sense of tension, lots of low end, ringing out and reverberating, the melodies strange and haunting, often descending chromatically over and over, very dizzying and disorienting, and just as often transforming into strange little melodic tangles.
The last few tracks seem to ditch the beat entirely, instead exploring the piano and the space around it, strange haunting melodies, very very free and abstract, somewhere between modern classical and free jazz, a hypnotic abstract winding down after the rest of the record's more tense and tight rhythmic machinations...
A curious commission for sure, and one that was destined to fail from the outset. CM Von Hausswolff is the Swedish sound / installation artist responsible for all sorts of unusual projects including his collaborations with John Duncan, The Hafler Trio, and of course Leif Elggren as the twin figureheads of the Kingdom of Elgaland / Vargaland. His clinical sounds using shortwave radio, WW2 era oscillators, sonar, amplified electrical fences, etc. manifest the electro-magnetic detritus from these various technologies. We're pretty sure that when Hausswolff received the commission to broadcast his various tones and drones within the Istanbul Airport as part of the 5th International Istanbul Biennial, he must have been playing with Brian Eno's strategies of his Music For Airports with the machines doing the talking for him through cyclical ambient passages. Of course, Hausswolff's sources are grey, corroded, and not exactly easy listening; so only half of the submitted work was accepted for transmission. The first disc is a 60 minute plus excursion into deep-electric isolationism, with swells of grim resonance and low-frequencies occasionally usurped by squiggling synthesis. As sound design, it's purposefully rough-hewn and very dark in its intention; and in the context of an airport, this would certainly instill dread and foreboding into somebody getting onto a plane. But for late night bunker-inspired / dark-ambient listening, this is pretty fucking great. The second disc features those tracks that had been accepted for airport listening; and these are much more peculiar for Hausswolff as he's eschewing his normal mode of operation for downtempo electro rhythms and slow-motion samba loops topped with accordion. Rather summery wallpaper music that's probably what the curators were looking for, but not nearly as impressive as the first disc.
Here's the thing with Swedish black metaller Watain. Such a big deal is made out of their EVILness, their Satanism, their philosophy, their filthy, smelly live shows, rife with rotting animal heads and lots and lots of blood, all that stuff, there's really no way the music could live up to the hype, especially considering these guys, for as heavy and blasting and black they are, they are writing super melodic black metal, that is way too listenable and catchy really to be doused in blood and adorned with pentagrams and upsidedown crosses. If you had only seen pictures of the band, and heard about them, read interviews, you would undoubtedly expect something WAY noisier and WAY more brutal, insanely filthy and lo-fi and, well, frankly, more evil. There's been a huge backlash with this record, which seems weird to us, cuz it's not that far removed from Sworn To The Dark or Casus Luciferi, if anything it's the logical progression from those records, the sound is incredible, killer production, the guitars chaotic and crushing, everything sounds massive, the songs are a bit more complex and proggy, more parts, lots of weird tangly bits and strange time signatures, but the things is, these songs have a definite pop core, that no amount of buzz and blast can disguise. Which no doubt bugs the fuck out of the orthodox true grim kult hordes, but hell, for us, we're loving it, it's almost like these guys are taking up where Dissection's Storm Of The Light's Bane left off, total old school metal melodies mixed in with classic Scandinavian blackness, the songs epic and majestic and heavy, but hooky as fuck, crazy melodic, and WAY catchier than black metal was probably ever meant to be. What more do you need to know? If you can ignore the grim posturing and just dig into the music, this is definitely some seriously awesome shit, plus, as if to further distance themselves from the troo and grim traditionalists, they do a killer cover of "Chains Of Death" by Italian horror metallers Death SS!!!
While they last, we have the super deluxe digipaks, that are fucking amazing, all designed to look like an old woodcut, but with a diecut front panel with the third panel visible through the hole...
Issue after issue, Wax Poetics continues to be the place to go for the most informed and passionate writing and features on soul, funk, jazz, hip-hop and beyond. This time out, it's all about the hip-hop, with KRS-One and EPMD on the dual covers and inside great features on both, as well as Ice-T, Ice-Cube, DXT, as well as some nice in memoriam pieces on Guru, Chilly B and Malcolm McLaren. Cool features on the roots of freestyle, the impact of Latinos in hip-hop culture and as always great crate digger tips highlighting some obscure rare groove records that we all will have our eyes out for. Cover to cover, always a satisfying read!
One of four new Root Strata tapes this week, this one from long time aQ fave Keith Fullerton Whitman, who we've dug ever since his days as Hrvatski, turning jungle and drum 'n' bass inside out and upside down. Since then Whitman has released a ton of amazing music, on his own and in various collaborations, so we were pretty excited about this, especially when we heard that it was Whitman's stab at creating what he calls 'automatic' electronic music. The liner notes go into great detail about the sounds' genesis and creation, but unless you're a total tech geek or make electronic music yourself, you probably won't follow most of it, we sure didn't, but it hardly matters, as the music is totally fantastic, whether you understand the ideas behind the sounds or not. Lush looped tapestries of sounds, the notes beeping and chirping and blooping, gorgeous hypnotic melodies, ever shifting, overlapping, blending and then splitting off, the sounds bouncing from speaker to speaker, dizzying and dreamy simultaneously, hovering somewhere between outer space kosmische krautrock, academic electronic music and new age.
The opening track is a gorgeous swirling whirl of sound, like some sort of Lubomyr Melnyk / Expo 70 mashup, but played by robots on handbuilt synths, flurries of notes spidery strings of melody, all winding and unwinding, unfurling and, furling (?). The second track is a short stretch of abstract spaced out glitch and abstract dronemusic, before the next track returns to that sort of looped melodyscape, sounding a bit like a way more raw, lo-fi, analog Alva Noto, this time much more buzzy and crunchy, but with the same swirling shimmery vibe as the record opener.
The next few tracks work their way through creepy super hard panned beep and bloop bliss-scapes, all fuzzy and warmly distorted, the sounds literally leaping from speaker to speaker, adding a definitely surreal drugged out quality to the music, to thick sheets of buzzing distorted crunch and layered Merzbowian noise, to deep, new age-y bleep flecked swells of deep meditative tones, finally culminating in the 23+ minute closer, another dizzying array of swooping tones, and tangled melodies, a lush and psychedelic electronic headtrip, that manages to be dense and dizzying as well as impossibly hypnotic and lovely, slipping from soft focus and beautifully blurred to frenzied and frantic.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES, housed in super nice, thick offset printed covers, with liner notes by Whitman himself...
This issue of the UK new music magazine that we here are all pretty much REQUIRED to read, features the hoodied image of Kevin Martin aka The Bug on the cover, he's also well known from such projects as God, Ice, and Techno Animal. We're definitely keen on reading that one. Also this ish, disco proggers Chrome Hoof, David Toop talks about London's swinging '60s sonic radicals, there's scene reports from Columbia and Poland, Alex Nielson reveals his love of Sinatra's Only The Lonely, and Oneohtrix Point Never is the Invisible Jukebox's next victim. Plus, DJ Nate, Michael Pisaro, Konx-Om-Pax, and more, including all the usual news, reviews (lots of reviews), charts, columns, etc. ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
When we hosted our first South By Southwest showcase last year, with our pals at WFMU, and were preparing out dream lists of bands to play, Woven Hand was right near the top of our list, after all, we'd made 4 of the 5 Woven Hand records our Record Of The Week (5 of 6 counting this one), and had somehow never seen them live. So when they confirmed, we were ecstatic, how could it not be totally amazing? But the biggest surprise wasn't that it WAS in fact, amazing, or that it was powerful and moving and intense, it was that they were so LOUD and so HEAVY, the room packed, the sound ALIVE, a crackling energy coursing through every note, the volume deafening, but somehow it was perfect, just a huge swirling mass of intense apocalyptic swampy doom folk, the drums thunderous, the guitar jagged and howling and heavy, and the vocals, on record it's some sort of testifying, but live, we were almost ready to convert, and become born again. It was that intense, that inspirational, that emotional.
And the thing is, Woven Hand records do a pretty amazing job of capturing that emotion and energy on record, no small feat considering how many of the most amazing bands live, fall flat recorded, but that has never been a problem with David Eugene Edwards and his Woven Hand, or even Sixteen Horsepower, the band that came before (and was also a Record Of The Week honoree). The records are holy documents of sound, Edwards' fundamentalist Christianity, that would normally rankle, in the context of Woven Hand becomes so much more, the power of belief, the power of the spirit, of faith, rendered in sound. It helps that the sounds is a harrowing, brooding, apocalyptic swampy folk, rife with tales of damnation and salvation, hellfire and misery and suffering, the music simultaneously a cautionary tale, and a song of praise, the two often wound up tight, making the message, and the music, that much more mysterious.
On The Threshingfloor, Woven Hand sounds as dark, and haunting, and heavy as ever, the various Eastern and world music elements that were definitely present on past records, here are much more of an essential component, adding an exotic vibe to the already intense doomfolk. The record begins with a haunting almost acoustic ballad, lots of buzzing steel strings, a moody minor key melody, minimal percussion, and Edwards' powerful vocals, all underpinned by thick droning swells. It's on the next track, the title track, that we revisit the power of that live show we witnessed in Texas, a frantic chunk of jangle and strum, lots of extra percussion, anguished super powerful vocals, an acoustic guitar wielded like a battle axe, Eastern melodies woven throughout, a seriously powerful bit of musical conversion. "A Holy Measure" is more stripped down and folky, but no less powerful, followed by the doom folk dirge of "Raise Her Hands", creepy and menacing and yet still utterly lovely.
One new element, that we never noticed before was what seems to be nods to groups like Joy Division, low slung gloomy basslines, deep tortured vocals, on one hand it seems like maybe it was always present, but here, that vibe is huge, try to imagine some sort of Christian apocalyptic doom folk cold wave, and you'll be getting closer to tracks like "His Rest", or "Behind Your Breath", gothy and grim, but still flecked with twang and shimmer and strum.
Elsewhere, "Singing Grass" is a gorgeous and utterly heartbreaking ballad/dirge, all acoustic guitars and moaning cellos, and the vocals, so dark and mournful, easily the most moving track on the record. "Wheatstraw" is only a minute long, but it's darkly evocative, a haunting dronescape, gauzy and hazy and ghostlike. "Orchard Gate" is a gothic folk epic, fire and brimstone made sound, but again, for all its darkness and misery, it's just so breathtakingly beautiful.
The strangest moment is the record closer, "Denver City", a weirdly rocking skiffle folk rocker, with distorted vocals, and surprisingly major key chord progression, which sounds more like Railroad Jerk than Woven Hand, it perhaps doesn't fit the dour mood of the rest of the record, but maybe that's why it's at the end, the light at the end of the tunnel perhaps. But if light is the last thing you want from Woven Hand, then bail out before "Denver City", and you'll emerge from The Threshingfloor still wholly under its dark spell....
Yen Pox is hardly a prolific project, but their dark ambient constructions over the past two decades stand as benchmarks for the genre alongside the likes of Lustmord, Inade, and Nordvargr. Blood Music was in fact the first album by Yen Pox (a duo comprised of Michael Hensley and Steven Hall) released in 1995 only to go out of print shortly there after. That record in particular had been heavily championed by Eric Lanzilotta of Anomalous Records and Stefan Knappe (then of Maeror Tri and now of Troum), with Knappe releasing a Yen Pox single for the seminal Drone Records series (later anthologized on tUMULt's epochal 2cd set of tracks from the Drone back catalogue). A Yen Pox / Troum collaboration came to fruition in 2002, thoroughly blackening Troum's already dark guitar drones with Yen Pox's death obsessed theatrics.
Blood Music is an apt name for the horror sound design presented by Yen Pox. Much like the catacomb and crypt recordings from Lustmord's quintessential dark ambient record Heresy, Yen Pox grounds all of their compositions upon an ominous murk of shadow, reverb, and obfuscated sound all of which gives the sense of being trapped deep underground without any viable means of escape. Slashes of metal-on-metal give an infernal allusion to ghostly trains grinding against the rail and filling the air with thick, cancerous smoke. Dark-minded synthesizers are buried under heaps of reverberation, blurring their cosmic fizz into a sodden percolation of electricity. Sinister voices moan, cackle, and howl in the nether regions of the Yen Pox soundtrack, occasionally marked by very slow moving melodies that are not too far from some of the dark majesty that Troum can utter in their grimmest state.
The second disc to Blood Music contains a remastering of their very first cassette plus a track from an early single and a compilation track originally released by Relapse ambient / experimental sublabel Release. That cassette was a pretty murky affair, and the remastered job really brings out the power of the Yen Pox sound, marked by oceanic swells of thrumming noise and atonal punctuations. A very worthy complement to an already exceptional record.
The leadoff track from Yo La Tengo's latest album, Popular Songs, gets the remix treatment from three of the band's favorite hip-hop beat makers. De La Soul, RJD2, and Pete Rock all take their turn remixing "Here To Fall". While we usually aren't the biggest fans of rock bands going the remix route, especially the HIP HOP remix route, luckily Yo La Tengo have always managed to pull of whatever they wanted to do, no matter how unlikely, or seemingly ill advised, and this is yet another example, with all the remixers totally and reverentially respecting YLT's aesthetic while making something new and fresh out of an already great song. De La Soul and RJD2 give more of a break beat groove to the song not adding any of their own vocals which we appreciate, while the Pete Rock remix is for sure the most up front hip-hop one of the bunch. We also know how much these artists mean to Yo La Tengo, as James McNew gushed with excitement about how excited he was to meet Pete Rock, De La Soul and RJD2 the last time he was in town and came to hang out on Irwin's radio show on KUSF. There are few bands you can just blindly trust everything they put out into the world, and YLT are one of them.
Hot on the heels of Lovely Gold, Michael Yonkers unearths yet another collection of songs from his vast arsenal. Recorded in 1974 and released originally in what we would imagine would be a tiny amount, Goodby Sunball showcases Yonkers' folkier side, and the songs here display a more skeletal acoustic approach that would be electrified a few years later on Lovely Gold. However, calling this "folk" doesn't entirely hit the mark - this is Michael Yonkers we're talking about, a man whose approach represents a unique vision in the history of home recorded music. And to those paying attention, you might find Goodby Sunball presenting some of Yonkers' weirdest lyrics, even though the music itself is probably his most traditional sounding. The songs almost give off a spiritual vibe, and the lyrics alternate between sad laments and aching passion, with some impenetrable wackiness thrown in for good measure. Looking at the cover, with the man himself posed between two trees and the back, with a bearded, cult leader-looking Yonkers, one might wonder if this album represents time lost in some mental wilderness. Many of the songs are ultra melancholy, and the use of multi-tracked vocals gives things a hazy, ethereal quality, while lines like "Hand me another beer and you'll see happiness" make you wonder... But no complaints here, just Michael Yonkers doing his thing in the 1970s. It's great having these tracks available, probably the first time many people have heard this stuff... of course, with a pressing of only 500, you might want to act fast. And for now, we're the first to have these, weeks before they land everywhere else, so dig in! ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*
