We've long championed the works of David Jackman's Organum, a long running drone project, whose modern take on classic minimalism, a gorgeous assemblage of bowed metals and collaged layered dronescapes, has managed to far surpass any of his/their contemporaries in terms of quality, originality, and sheer vision.
While most of the Organum records do in fact share sonic similarities, each one is most definitely its own sonic universe, a fantastic(al) piece of musical art, that manages to soothe and entrance, yet still challenge and engage, as is the case with Valentin, the first Organum vinyl release in 7 years, a single track spread out over two sides of a 7", at 45 rpm of course, so like past Organum 7"s, this is about quality more than quantity, a bit pricey perhaps for just a brief glimpse into Jackman's unique soundworld, but as always well worth it.
Valentin begins with a whir of what sounds like rainfall, a soft sheen of hushed white noise, punctuated by the occasional piano chord, minor key, ringing out mysteriously, soon joined by the clatter of crashing metals and shattering glass, those sounds are spaced out, letting that swirling hissing ambience drift and hover, before voices surface, a choir, a lovely chorale buried in the blurred background. There are some rumbling scrapes, some distant creaks, and while the sound seems to evolve over the course of the two sides, it also sounds looped, cyclical and mesmeric, the various sounds, recurring, perhaps subtly altered each time, perhaps not, the result though, how ever brief, is a gorgeous sprawl of haunting, elegiac, abstract minimalism. So fantastic.
LIMITED TO 233 COPIES, pressed on ultra thick vinyl, housed in a heavy matte picture sleeve, with a printed cardstock insert, each one hand numbered.
Monk whips up another amazing collection of songs from the great Charlie Poole, and like the last one, Husband And Wife Were Angry One Night, this showcases Poole's clear tenor voice and rhythmic fingerpicked banjo playing in all their glory. Captured between 1925-1930 for Columbia Records, many of these songs come from the traditional American songbook and also feature Poole's North Carolina Ramblers bandmates. What we have hear are the beginnings of country and bluegrass as they would come to be known, essential listening for anyone with an interest in the roots of American music.
The fourth in Pulse Emitter's series of Meditative Music cd-r's, and like the first three, another hour long expanse of warm liquid synthmusic, designed, according to Mr. Pulse Emitter himself, Daryl Groetsch, as the perfect music for "sleep, massage, or deep reflective thought" or as an album ideal for "sleep, massage, or any activity where a peaceful and balanced sound environment is desired." Which this most definitely is, minimal, spacious, spare, abstract and ambient, lush and hushed, softly pulsing synth swells drift in and fade out, leaving lots and lots of space, eventually, the various swells overlap and are layered into blurred stretches of barely there melody, the notes stretched out into long blurred streaks of chordal thrum, allowed to ring out and fade nearly to silence, before another note takes its place, a sort of space music, the soundtrack to the cosmos, or an ultra minimal Carpenter style soundtrack, dark and languorous and so mysterious, the perfect music for mediation or relaxation, but also perhaps to accompany gazing into the heavens, or wandering across moonlit vistas. Besides the usual synth suspects, Pulse Emitter's Meditative Music definitely reminds us of folks like Leyland Kirby/The Caretaker or Indignant Senility, their strange gauzy ambience definitely an analog for PE's hushed sonic dreamworld, if anything, PE taps into the same sort of wistful melancholy, it's definitely relaxing and serene, but it's also infused with a certain amount of pathos and mystery, that evokes thoughts and memories of other worlds, lost memories and forgotten pasts, a lovely chunk of electronic minimalism, that will definitely appeal to anyone into abstract sonic wonder and dreamlike kraudronedrift.
Another great installment in Mochilla's series of global DJ mixes documenting the crate-digging treasures of one DJ's trip to a far off land. The last one we listed was Madlib's killer Speto Da Ruo: Dirty Brasilian Crates Vol. 1 and what that was to Brazilian Popular Music, this one is to Ethiopian music of all varieties from the funky to the folkloric.
Culled from a 2004 trip to Ethiopia with the Soundway label's Miles Cleret, Quantic met Mulatu Astatke and first discussed plans for his first trip to Los Angeles for a legendary 2009 concert performed with a full orchestra and jazz legends Bennie Maupin and The Tribe's Phil Ranelin. Most of the records played on this mix are over 30 years old, and their dusty crackle is often left intact. But don't expect this to be merely an Ethiopiques series rehash. While it starts in familiar ethio-jazz territory it veers seamlessly into traditional chanting, street festivals and performers, exotic cinematic instrumentals and evocative ballads. A near hour long seamless mix of surging energy and warm beauty for hot summer nights!
An almost complete collection of all the early recordings of primal primitive lo-fi Ohio garage punk pioneer Mike Rep, who has remained more of a footnote than forefather, which is downright criminal listening to this stuff again. Recordings from the mid seventies to the early nineties, this revamped version of a 1992 lp compilation shines a light on the undeniable lo-fi pop garage rock genius of Mr. Mike Rep, who some folks may know as a producer of records by modern day practitioners of a similar sound, like Guided By Voices, Strapping Fieldhands and Times New Viking, and hell, if you dig ANY or all of those groups, or any of the legions of groups that followed, Mike Rep is gonna blow your mind. Especially when you consider he was doing warped garage pop, lo-fi home brewed jangle weirdness, 20, 30, heck almost 40 years before Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees and the Sic Alps and all the rest.
Psychedelic, jangly, rocking, droney, fucked up and far out, this stuff is twisted and magical, warped and catchy as all get out, from a blissed out all instrumental version of a 13th Floor Elevators jam, to a bad ass Strapping Fieldhands cover(!!), the sounds veers wildly, yet somehow not incoherently from chaotic horn flecked grinding garage blowouts, to a fuzzy Stooges-y chunk of sci-fi hard rock crunch, to shimmery reverby sixties sonic sunshine, to flute flecked outsider folk, to snotty snarly ULTRA lo-fi punk rock stomp, to trippy over the top uber dramatic glam doom, complete with Asian melodies, and bizarre vocal effects, to Velvetsy hypnotic looped drone-rock, to twisted cabaret pop, to full on fucked up and freaked out druggy audio meltdown. So fucking great. And the fact that so many folks haven't heard this stuff, well, time to right that wrong. ANYone into weirdo lo-fi pop and weirdo garage rock, should buy this NOW. Comes with a whole bunch of unreleased tracks, and a download card.
Beloved Scottish troubadour Alasdair Roberts teams up with fiddle playing English lass Jackie Oates for these four tunes - three instrumentals and one with vocals - all with a reverential nod towards British and Scottish folk traditions. The interplay between Roberts' deftly fingerpicked guitar and Oates' fiddle is light, graceful and utterly at ease. The rather coldly clinical title of this record really doesn't do the sprightly passionate music justice. Sure to please Roberts' followers and offers Oates a fine introduction to those on this side of the pond! We only got 3 copies btw...
We first discovered amazing German duo Rockford Kabine via their debut full length, Italian Music: 31 Invalid Movie Themes, which on the surface played like a series of micro snippets of actual Italian soundtrack music, interspersed with snippets of dialogue, brief excerpts from what we can only assume are in fact real films, the music the perfect compliment, wah wah guitars, Morricone-ish twang, smoky synths, spooky rhythmic dronescapes. It was an incredible collection of music that very well could have been soundtrack music, but was in fact an original creation, imagined music for imaginary Italian films. And we were blown away. Not soon after, the band contacted us to let us know that they were already working on a follow up, this one an ACTUAL soundtrack, to some sort of arty XXX adult film, yep, a porno, which in some weird way made sense, what with RK's ability to conjure up super sultry and sexy sounds, that draw from all sorts of different sources, their music already cinematic on its own, seemingly perfect to be wedded to visuals, and heck, when the visuals turn out to consist of sexy women, some wielding daggers, wearing World War 2 style gasmasks and leather bodysuits and well, it's tough to argue with that.
But since the soundtrack was to be available ONLY as a bonus disc with the movie itself, it required some wrangling, and contacting an actual adult film distributor down in SoCal to get our hands on copies. But we're so glad we did. Even removed from the visuals, like all great soundtrack music, Rockford Kabine's score for XERO is incredible, haunting, mysterious, groovy, funky, abstract, cinematic for sure, but also lush and experimental and moody and mysterious. The strange thing too is that the film seems quite European, almost like some Inglorious Basterds style Tarantino war pic (or maybe that's just the aforementioned gas mask get up getting to us), but the music is very Eastern, in fact all the titles seem to be in Japanese, which only adds to the mystique of Rockford Kabine's fantastic soundworld.
So we'll discuss the film in a bit, but as aQ is a record store, and this is in fact our Record Of The Week, it's probably best to discuss the soundtrack/score all on its own first. Like Italian Music before it, XERO is a series of shortish tracks, between 1 and 2 minutes, each super distinctive, with the duo conjuring up incredible mysterious moods in a manner of seconds, leaving the listener in most cases wanting more more more. And like their Italian Music, this does play out like some sort of DJ Shadow style sonic collage, still drawing from Morricone, and the Italian giallo tradition, but also from classic '70s porno music, with some funk and groove, but instead of the oft ridiculed wah wah guitar style porn kitsch, this is much more evocative, and dark, guitars are slithery, basslines low slung, undulating, bells chimes, notes drift through fields of reverb, riffs chug and churn only to dissipate in a field of chimes, spaced out drones collide with almost Tangerine Dream like synths, flutes flit and flutter, the rhythms are minimal and motorik, some tracks playing out like some krautrock groove (reminding us that Can made softcore soundtracks too, way back when), others like some lost cosmic disco. It's actually quite hard to describe XERO, there are so many different sounds and styles, and it's hard to imagine them working as a soundtrack, especially to an super stylized XXX art film, but removed from the film, the music, as varied and constantly shifting as it is, somehow plays out cohesively, like an album proper, guitar twang is laced over a minimal footstep like rhythm, organs wheeze, everything sounds softly woozy and lysergic, exotic percussion collides with gamelan like melodies, minimal hip hop beats are wrapped around stuttering loops, occasionally coalescing into some seriously fuzzy hairy funk, other times drifting into Goblin style almost new wave sounding synthscapes, acoustic guitars unfurl some Western strum, but woven in are some haunting synth melodies, even some mysterious voices, soaring strings and sorrowful piano, tense droned out ambience, skittery almost Portishead style downtempo beats, bells and chimes, all sorts of strange production, the sound sometimes crystal clear and lush and lovely, other times hazy and druggy and gorgeously washed out, a kaleidoscopic sonic journey through some imaginary world of naked women, gasmasks and daggers, weird Asian masks, furry shag rugs, a world that would have stayed imaginary had these sounds not been used to edit the film of the same name.
The film is indeed pornographic, and XXX. It's all female-on-female, there's very little actual hardcore sex though. And while it IS a porno, with no plot to speak of, it's almost more like it's about the music. Indeed, the movie was edited to the music, much like Sergio Leone used to blast Morricone's scores on the set and have the actors move to the music, so the film here is a series of impressionistic tableaus, the colors acid drenched and super saturated, long slow stripteases, even the actual sex is strangely arty and not traditionally sexy, but the strange constantly shifting images, the cool, always changing music, work together, creating something much more than a porno, in fact, the film seemed more like something the band would project behind them when they performed live, strange masks, the aforementioned rubberclad gasmasked mystery woman, another woman who looks a bit like a sexier female version of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, long duster, big hat, face obscured by hair, and as the back cover proclaims, "See the shocking ending the censors didn't want you to witness", and we can definitely attest to the fact that the ending is really weird, depressing and violent, and not at all sexy, but in some way, that makes this whole project more interesting, and bizarre, and pretty much perfect for Rockford Kabine's incredible soundtrack. Though of course you don't HAVE to watch it, the prudish can enjoy the soundtrack fully without reference to the visuals.
Needless to say, this is TOTALLY RECOMMENDED, but, since the soundtrack cd does in fact come with an XXX rated adult dvd, thus is required some unaccustomed legalese on our part, as follows... This is only to be purchased by adults, and by purchasing this, and/or adding it to your online shopping cart, you are hereby agreeing to these stipulations: that you are an in fact an adult, being of legal age, 18 or 21, in your legal jurisdiction to view adult oriented material that may be sexual or graphical in nature. (Local laws vary throughout the United States, so if you are not 100 percent sure of the laws applicable to you, you are advised to check before purchasing.) Further, you agree that you will not redistribute this material to anyone for which it is illegal for them to view or possess such material, nor will you permit any minor, or any person who would find this personally offensive, to view this material, and finally that you will hold harmless aQuarius recOrds, its officers, ISP, and employees, from and against any claims, liability, losses, costs, damages, or expenses (including attorney's fees) arising from you use of the images contained on the dvd. Furthermore, you will defend aQuarius recOrds against all claims of impropriety regarding your purchase of this item. Phew. We'd have put all that in small print if we could.
When it comes to musical prowess, bands don't get more well rounded, well versed and sickly skilled than The Roots. While they are ambassadors of the hip-hop community their musical arsenal and appreciation runs through just about every genre and style of music of the last half-century. They are true students and scholars of music but what makes them special is that they also have their own deep running soul that takes all that knowledge and appreciation and transforms it into such rich sounding music, helping to create a wide musical community that they are endlessly collaborating, producing and playing with. None of here think Jimmy Fallon is all that funny but damn do we watch his late night show so much now as the Roots are his house band, and its so amazing to watch them play and back bands that perform on the show like Erykah Badu, Hot Chip, Herbie Hancock, Ludacris, etc. The best part of the show is when Jimmy interacts with ?uestlove and the rest of the band, challenging them to come up with songs in every kind of style at the drop of a hot and they always pull it off spot on with such suave style.
How I Got Over, shows that their network TV gig hasn't tainted their musical vision one bit, in fact getting to play every night like that has probably only made them an even tighter unit. There is something so assured and unforced about the Roots, it all flows so pure and naturally. While the record is filled with guests it doesn't feel uneven as the Roots are so masterful at bringing different people together yet maintaining their own groove underneath it all. They even do an awesome track with Joanna Newsom that takes her track "The Book Of Right On" and turns it simply into "Right On" with her vocals and harp merged with their beats and raps with totally stunning results. There is not a single miss on this album, we kind of forgot how damn good the Roots can be on record as we always think of them as a live band these days, but wow they continue to show they can do it all! And do it so well!!
Over the last year The Sandwitches debut lp, How To Make Ambient Sadcake proved to be a record with major legs. As we still have a hard time keeping it in stock as it sells out just about every week as people get turned on to what a unique and intimate sound these ladies have carved out. These brand new songs show that The Sandwitches are only getting better, with a set of songs filled with such warmth and a haunting glow. We hear hints of Karen Dalton, Vashti Bunyan, Christine McVie, Pentangle, Sybille Baier as well as contemporary artists like Tara Jane O'Neil, Jana Hunter, Marissa Nadler, Rio En Medio, Beach House, Tiny Vipers and Metallic Falcons. Or what it might sound like if Mimi from Low and Georgia from Yo La Tengo did lonely dark tinged covers of Red House Painters songs. The record has this timeless sound that makes us think of crawling up to the attic of our weird/cool aunt's house and finding an unmarked dusty record that we put on play as it turns to dusk outside and we flip through boxes of old photographs and torn out journal entries. Recorded & produced by Wymond Miles from The Fresh & Onlys, this ep really raises the bar for their sound. One of the most warm, eerie, yet comforting collection of songs we've heard all year. Stamped on one-sided vinyl and limited to 500 copies. Highly recommended!
Two new, 7"s of delicious skweee here folks! From the same Portland label, Poisonous Gases, that previously brought us Lazercrotch. Now they've gone and signed up a genuine Scandinavian skweeer, Daniel Savio from Sweden, as well as Portland's Michael Bruce (not the guy from the Alice Cooper Band we're pretty sure).
Savio's 7", following up his other recent one for LoDubs, features two new tracks, both representative of Savio's brand of "Apocalyptic Skweee", suspenseful blip-blip-bloop rhythms and ominous bass pulses that harken back to creepy cool John Carpenter scores.
Yay! More from the UK dronester with two first names, who was once upon a time the drummer for shoegazers Slowdive, but only really recently came to our attention via his full-length for the Miasmah label last year, entitled Navigare. We loved, loved, loved that record, as we do most things Miasmah, and compared it to everything from Nadja to Jesu to Jasper TX to Tim Hecker... Now Scott is back with a four-song mini-lp follow-up for the Immune imprint, a vinyl-only 12" that comes with an mp3 download coupon. It's 24 minutes or so of of shimmering, shifting, sometimes sombre, dense drone bliss. Consisting of calm crackle, haunting hum, and buried melody, these abstract soundscapes are immersive, Pop Ambient drift that's physical, yet soothing. Originally begun during the Navigare sessions, but completed later, we're told, these tracks certainly share much in common with Navigare in terms of mood and method (they're apparently, though not that obviously, constructed from digitally processed acoustic instruments, and field recordings, among other sound sources). Mysterious though they may be, we're somehow not surprised when we're further told that certain of Scott's inspirations for these songs include a bout of tinnitus he once suffered, and the sad fate of an alcoholic submariner relative of his.
We wish we had the language - the poetry - to say more about this, to really put into words what this sounds like, but maybe that's not necessary anyway. Those of you appreciative of music like this, addicted to music like this, hopefully already have an inkling that this is for you from what we've already said (or what you've already heard), to which we'll only add our typical, but meaningful, "Nice".
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES.
Seattle's Matt Shoemaker has long stood as one of the few consistently great drone tacticians around, principally because his take on the drone supreme is punctured by humid field recordings laced with occasional bellowings of atmospheric dread. His previous works such as Erosion Of The Analogous Eye and The Wayward Set are demonstrations in equal parts of rich transcendence and hallucinatory isolationism. Given the titles of the two pieces on this gorgeous picture disc released by Elevator Bath, you can make a pretty solid bet that this tends more toward the latter aesthetic of Shoemaker's black-hole expressionism.
Shoemaker begins with a tense diamond-shot drone from overlapping sinewaves generated from controlled feedback. These pierced frequencies slide downwards amidst a curious set of clattering noises, almost like the amplification of a paramecium undulating its way into the crevices of its host body. Extended wheezes of grey gasps of air and motorized growlings swallow everything that came before with a ghostly echo of those feedback tones broadcast from way back at the event horizon. The second side (which may be the first, as Elevator Bath's picture discs are very trickly to discern track listings!) immediately expands into one of Shoemaker's signature pieces of lysergic darkness, with all of his ill-tempered vibrations colliding into huge phase patterns that mutate, deviate, and detour the linearity of his cold drone fundamental. Always bending and set off-kilter this composition is dangerously slippery as if set upon quicksand with the various layers upon layers splitting off in asynchronous, oozing, droning directions.
Very highly recommended as with all of Shoemaker's work! Limited to 233 copies.
This is so absolutely brilliant and bonkers, that when we first heard it, we thought it must be fake, some modern day Rephlex artist putting everyone on, taking the piss, with a "raga-techno" album supposedly from the early '80s. But, no joke, this is the real thing! In 1982, Charanjit Singh, a famous Bollywood composer (he was featured on Sublime Frequencies amazing Bollywood Steel Guitar compilation), had a plan to translate ancient traditional Indian classical ragas to the synthesizer. Using the very synths that would later define Acid House (Rolands TB-303 and TR-808!), Singh unwittingly created a proto-acid masterpiece, before the techno genre ever existed. Since only a hundred or less copies were made originally, this release was mostly a rumor since its creation. We vaguely remember Drew Daniel from Matmos talking about it on Pitchfork, a couple of years back, saying someone should reissue it, but we weren't ready for how incredible and ahead of its time it sounds. Imagine if Kraftwerk (or even Oneohtrix Point Never) started composing music for a Bollywood Rave. Or imagine a more raga-inspired take on another proto-acid classic, Manuel Gottsching's epic E2-E4. While the "disco" rhythms are fast and frenetic and don't really vary that much between tracks (they're not really disco beats per se, but more akin to acid's trancey bounce), the synth flourishes and squelches of the raga over the top are soaring and floaty, making the tracks deliriously hypnotic. Capturing acid house's lysergic transcendence but with an outsider's economy that refuses to date it specifically to the era. While we only have the double lp, there will be a cd release sometime in the next month or so. But don't sleep on the vinyl too long as it's highly limited, and we guarantee there is not another release quite like this one in your collection. Highest Recommendation!
Woah! We've got the return of a way, way, way, WAY OUT electric guitar and drums duo document here, an improv maelstrom of uber DISTORTION freakout action that proves there's nothing new under the sun, 'cause this was cranked out by two long haired American hippies back in the early Seventies. In the annals of underground noise, they deserve a special place. This is proto everything! Mick Barr, No Wave, Ascension, Rhys Chatham, Glen Branca, Sonic Youth, High Rise, The Blue Humans, Dead C, Harry Pussy, Lightning Bolt, D!O!D!O!D!, even the Rangda we listed a couple weeks ago... heck, we're hearing all of that here. Wow. A total feedback and bashing attack, but not negative in attitude or anti-musical at all. In fact, it's presented with a lot of positive hippy-dippy charm ("listen for the time when the drums play themselves - when the spirits in the drums themselves are dancing" - that's a quote from drummer Bob Thompson found on the '98 release, and the title Daily Dance comes from the writings of Ken Kesey of Merry Prankster/Acid Test fame). Yet, it makes one of their own influences - The Stooges - seem square in comparison. These two go further in channeling spiritual free jazz a la Coltrane and Sanders into a stripped down, amped up primal "psych rock" context, it's hard to think of many earlier examples of such out-rock exploration. And it was also totally DIY punk too - of course, no label back then, or now for that matter, would have seen much commercial potential in this volume-dealing duo's pioneering skronk fest!
Daily Dance was recorded in 1972, and subsequently released as a private press lp in '73 via Carla Bley's New Music Distribution Service. It was reviewed favorably by Creem magazine in '77 (you can see, this didn't get all that much attention when it first came out, but has grown in cult status over the years), with Doug Snyder's guitar squall indeed compared to James Williamson of The Stooges. Snyder also cited the Velvet Underground and Sonny Sharrock as his guitar influences... Japan's Masayuki Takayangi was probably unknown to Snyder at the time but we bet he'd have been into him too, though the Daily Dance duo definitely are more ROCK than they are jazz. Or at least, they manage to combine rock and jazz without coming close to "fusion", not that there's anything wrong with fusion, good fusion anyway, but there's lots of bad fusion and this ain't either.
Now it's been reissued on cd for the second time (the previous edition, from '98, is long out of print) and on vinyl as well, making it available to a new generation of improv noise rock freaks. [Vinyl? Yes, unfortunately we're out of stock on the vinyl right at the moment, but will get it back in soon, so please let us know if you want a copy in that format.] Pretty neat to hear music "like this" being made for what might have been the very first time, certainly Snyder and Thompson were "pushing the envelope" as they knew it then, advancing into territory not entirely mapped out by things they'd already heard. And even if it wasn't from '72, anyone who likes loud, full-on freakout, rhythmic skree, and droney noisy textures will be variously entertained, whether it be by the moody, mystic feedback and percussive shimmer that closes out the epic title track, or the dense rumble of "Teenage Emergency" at the end of the disc that makes us think of Sharrock playing some sort of static surf music...
Lion Productions, in association with Cantor Records (responsible for the vinyl reissue mentioned above), has done this up nicely, in a fancy Japanese-looking miniature lp style paste-on sleeve, complete with obi. Remastered from the original tapes, and packaged with a 20 page booklet with liner notes and photos. Nice! FYI, this compact disc edition also includes a previously unreleased two-minute bonus track, "Unseen, Unheard", that was left off the both the original and reissued vinyl for reasons of space (and it's not on the previous cd version either).
Like the Onna above, here's another release from Japan's PSF label that we've been meaning to highlight for a while (they put out too much good stuff!). Finally we have enough of 'em in stock to list (for months we've been selling these steadily just by playing it in the store, actually). As the evocative/informative subtitle indicates, this is an archival collection of recordings by one Satoshi Sonoda... who he? A guitarist and composer in the realm of post-progressive rock, and new music avant-garde, part of the late '70s Japanese university scene, with connections to both psychedelic drone minimalists East Bionic Symphonia and noisepunks Gaseneta.
From the subtitle, you'll also note that this release is dedicated to the late bassist Yasushi Ozawa, best known perhaps as a member of Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha. He apparently had quite an impact on Sonoda both artistically and personally. The seven tracks here find Sonoda performing with several different lineups/projects/units, several of which feature the presence of Ozawa. The first three tracks are all credited as Sonoda compositions, though they seem just as likely to be group improvisations, and are variously designated as by Free Music Space ("1") or Free Music Revolt ("rehearsal" and "session"). The very first piece, eleven minutes long, reminds us a lot of the oldest Onna stuff, dreamy and spacey, freaky and folky, a combo of raw wandering psychedelic jamming with majestic melancholic vocal balladry. Beautiful. The second track is even longer, over 24 minutes, and encompasses enthusiastic violin string scrape, somnolently nodding grooves, and free form freakout action. Very cool, as is the shorter but similar (sans violin) track 3. Next, tracks 4-6 are by a band called ANARkISS, performing live, and are more punky, with angular raucous jagged guitar, as well as some shakuhachi and sax and what they call "scratch noise"... one of the songs is a Kan Mikami cover, "Piss-Soaked Lake", which figures. The disc then finishes up with the sounds of Free Music Space 6, a large ensemble improv blow-out entitled, "Bound, Opened".
The cd booklet contains super personal and detailed liner notes in tiny, tiny type from Sonoda himself, with his recollections of the era, discussion of various personalities including of course Ozawa, and track-by-track commentary on the material included herein. Interesting as that all is, you definitely don't need to know what's in the liner notes, or even what we've mentioned in this review, in terms of historical context or whatever, to enjoy the sounds on this disc. Like we said, just playing it in the store got people plenty intrigued. The unique vibrations from far away and long ago documented here still resonate and compel.
Sun City Girls fans rejoice, the vinyl reissue of their epic crowning acheivement "300,003 Crossdressers..." is upon us. Originally released in 1996 on double cd only, "Crossdressers" almost certainly surpassed "Torch of the Mystics" as the Sun City
After all these years, Mark Kozelek's music still fills us with chills and goosebumps like no one else can. His melancholic voice and restrained arrangements come together for songs that sink so deep into our veins and lead us into cloudy and dazed daydreams. Admiral Fell Promises is a new set of songs written by Kozelek (he was on a big covers kick for a while) and they rank right at the top of anything he has created. The formula is not all that different from past Sun Kil Moon releases but there is something in the stark immediacy of the songs that is pulling us in so deep to this carefully crafted album. Maybe it's all the years he's spent in San Francisco but the record is just so perfect for those fog filled grey days that hit us all throughout the year and make us forget what day/month/year it is. These songs are so perfect for that dazed and dislocating sensation, filled with such a bleak romanticism. If he didn't have such a tasteful sense of subtly he could easily wow a crowd with impeccable almost flamenco/Spanish sounding guitar playing. Kozelek is one of those people who has never rested on his laurels. After Red House Painters it would have been easy for him to just allow that to be his lasting legacy, but over the years under his own name and the Sun Kil Moon moniker he continues to create a body of work that will stand the test of time. A must have for Kozelek fans and if you have checked out on his releases for a while this would be a great time to check back in!
The "Icelandic Invasion" continues, as Shadoks reissues some more crucial '60s/'70s psych-prog action from that island nation. Last time we highlighted the groovy "hairy funk" heaviness of Odmenn. This time, two more: the debut from Trubrot (1969), and this one, the sole album by Svanfridur (1972). Both bands demonstrate definite Beatles influence, and do so well, but also are quite eccentric in their own right, which perhaps can be ascribed to their Icelandic heritage?
This group was definitely musically talented, hot stuff on the live circuit in their native Iceland, though the sales of this self-released lp were disappointing. And thus it ended up being their only album. Too bad, it's a good 'un after all, considered a Nordic prog classic by many collectors today, and something we think that fans of the modern day Swedish group Dungen might totally dig, for that same sort of Scandinavian prog/pop/psych blend only this is the real deal, not a retro remake.
Svanfridur, like Odmenn, is also fairly heavy and fuzzed out, often enough, on acid blues rockers like "My Dummy", whilst being simultaneously super catchy on the pop side of things too, exemplified by opener "The Woman Of Our Day", which sounds like a hit to us. It's a diverse album though, Svandfridur happily mixing things up, getting moody with flute and strings on the title track "What's Hidden There?", and moodier still with the strange synth atmospheres of "Did You Find?"... Then there's the staccato folk violin into acid rock distorted guitar rippage of "Finido". Great stuff all over.
Like most Shadoks reissues, this includes extensive liner notes in the cd booklet (revealing, among other things, that members of Svanfridur, like SO many other bands of the day it seems, had been involved in a production of the musical Hair), along with tons of photos and graphics. The original sleeve bearing the lyrics (in English) and recording credits is reproduced, and if you look close you'll note the presence of the classic admonition that this record is "To Be Played Loud"! Indeed.
Two new releases from sound artist Nicholas Szczepanik, a long time aQ customer, whose releases have some how so far eluded us, until now. After a handful of super limited cd-r releases, this is in fact the first time we managed to get enough to review and list.
Astilbe Rubra is on Small Doses, another micro-label whose releases we just can't get enough of, every one lovingly and extravagantly packaged, which is surprising considering how limited the releases are. This one is no different, only 104 copies, housed in a gorgeous screen printed diecut fold over sleeve, with a printed insert, liner notes, and each one is hand numbered.
Szczepanik offers this release as a work in process, each track an unfinished idea, meant to be pursued and fleshed out later, but to our ears, these tracks sound perfect as they are. Deep, rich, lustrous sprawls of drone and whir and ambient shimmer. Heck there's even a track called "Shimmer", although it doesn't shimmer so much as crumble and grind and rumble. The opening track begins with a wall of soft white noise, that unfolds gradually, eventually revealing a warm chordal whir within, that stretches out into a long, dreamlike crawl. Lots of the tracks experiment with glitch and hiss and buzz, recording inconsistencies, meshed with abstract field recordings, some tracks are seriously intense, brittle, sharp and jagged, while others are murky and minimal, muted and introspective. Hard to believe these are just works in progress, but if they are, we sure can't wait to hear them when they're finished.
Latest release from one of our favorite dronescapers, this one super minimal and shimmery, a gorgeously hushed piece of abstract ultra personal drone music, a sort of sonic letter to Szczepanik's father, the result of a request by his father that his son write him a letter, a request that a younger Szczepanik didn't really understand and thus ignored at the time, only attempting to write that letter, in sound, recently, the result is Dear Dad, one of those rare records where minimal instrumental music manages to convey a surprising amount of emotion, no small feat, transforming childhood emotions, kept in check until adulthood, into sound, gorgeous lush droning sound, a hazy, gauzy brooding slow building buzz, that begins in complete silence, before becoming a whisper, and over the course of the next 20 minutes eventually a howl, a dense, ragged, blown out, noise drenched blast of crumbling corrosive crunch, still infused with buried melodies, but so intense, cathartic, a gorgeous sonic release, culminating in a strange bit of tangled melody, still in-the-red and blown out, but hauntingly lovely and lilting, wrapped in a constantly swirling squall of grinding buzz and glimmering caustic shimmer.
The second, shorter track is much more tranquil and serene, as if the catharsis of the first track purged any negativity, replaced regret with hope, the title "Forgive To Forget" seems to suggest as much, as does the music, a warm softly pulsing whir, all washed out, the soft focus edges eventually coming in to focus as the track progresses, the shapeless forms and indistinct streaks, becoming sweet melodies, the hushed whirs almost like soaring strings, a lush drone glowing with an inner warmth, that permeates all of the surrounding sounds, transforming sound into feeling, music into energy, notes and chords, textures and timbres into emotion. Not sure if it was the kind of letter Szczepanik's father was expecting, but it seems to be more than he could have hoped for.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. This is a replicated disc (not a cd-r)! Gorgeously packaged in a thick dark brown matte finish sleeve, with a printed cardstock insert, and all wrapped in a Japanese style cardstock printed obi, each with an actual stamp, every one unique.
Hands down the best mix collection we've heard in ages. Something about those Norwegians, damn do they know their way around space disco. We've already loved what we've heard by folks like Lindstrom and Prins Thomas, but Todd Terje's ability to create seamless mixes and imaginative edits and remixes has made him one of our favorites from that fertile scene. Remaster Of The Universe finally gives a nice big document to the amazing work Terje has been doing over the last few years. The first disc is his continuous mix of tracks by folks like Chaz Jankel, Gichy Dan, M, Jose Gonzales, etc. while the second disc is a collection of individual remixes and versions he's created for some of the same folks on the first disc as well as Antena, Lindstrom, Studio, Shit Robot, and more.
Terje really is a master at creating mixes that roll with such a shimmering vibration. He's able to respect the original tracks he uses yet totally infuse them with a new energy and a signature sound that is unmistakably his own. We like how that as seamless and smooth as he can be he's also not afraid to get really weird and left-of-center in his approach and song selection. Crossing eras and genres like the best kind of DJ's can, Terje has got us all moving and gliding to these dancefloor gems.
We've always thought there was something special about To Rococo Rot, we've heard moments on their records that really show they can reach next level brilliance in their ability to merge such a pronounced feeling and mood with their deep grooves and beats. Before dubstep and any of the other new electronic subcategories, To Roccoco Roc were already making super rich, moody and nuanced sounds that didn't conform to one single style. Speculation is their first album in many years and it finds the Berlin trio in top form. The album opens with Cluster-like pulsations and as it organically moves forward with a post-kraut-rock sensibility, the sounds shift and sway, going back and forth from a tense and haunting sensation to something more free and exploratory. There are moments where they tap into the kind of sound we imagine Tortoise and Mouse On Mars might create if they collaborated, yet there is something a bit more sinister and seething just under the surface of To Rococo Rot's sound. Their sonic versatility really sets them apart from so many of their peers. So nice to have them back!
We've had a sort of love / hate relation ship with Chicago post rockers Tortoise. Their Millions Now Living record will probably always have a spot in our All Time Favorite Records, and the boxset compilation A Lazarus Taxon, collecting all of their early records, is pretty dang tough to beat, but then something happened, and their records just stopped sounding as good as they once did, we couldn't be sure if it was the band, or if it was us, but for a long stretch, we just weren't digging much of what was coming out of the Tortoise camp. That is until the recent Beacons Of Ancestorship, a definite return to form, lots of the classic Tortoise sound was present, but it sounded like the band were exciting to be making new sounds, exploring, pushing and expanding, and we have been listening to that record like crazy, anxious to hear more from the reinvigorated Tortoise. And voila, a new 4 song Japanese import, that totally surpasses anything we could have hoped for, it doesn't really sound all that much like Tortoise, at least the first 2 of these 4 songs, instead, they sound like some abstract super distorted Autechre, all electronic sounding beats, lots of beeps and glitches, streaks of electronic buzz and hum, stutter and skitter, weirdly dubby and groovy, a little electro, the beats dropping out and leaving long lush drones, layered and textural, moody and mysterious, and that's just the first song. The second track is even more far out, a swirling collaged glitchscape, subtly industrial, hauntingly ambient, lush and droney, and meditative and seriously dense and heavy, processed vocals, thick bursts of grinding glitched out electronics, wow. It's not until the third track, that the organic Tortoise sound shows up, but even then, it's a sort of remix, the bands skittery jazzy lope, transformed into a sort of post This Heat workout, complete with that very This Heat hand clap, a similar rhythm, steel strings buzzing, looped and hypnotic and really awesome, especially the second half that features a weird sort of multiple drummer / synth duel. Finally there's the 13 minute closer, a dark, moody bit of post rock, still with that This Heat feel, that same sort of groove, the track shifting from skittery, to jazzy, to almost funky, and finally to blissed out and serene. So good. Even better than Beacons maybe!
If that weren't enough, there are three bonus videos, two live tracks, with Tortoise in more traditional Tortoise mode, and a super stylized music video. Cool!
Two new releases this week, from this relatively new world music label, whose past releases have totally blown us away, in particular, a collection of songs from legendary musician, Yoro Sibide, master of the ngoni, a traditional African stringed instrument, but almost more importantly, a donso, one of the traditional hunters of Mali, a mysterious group of men who live separated from the rest of society, the music of the donso, performed to inspire the other donsos for the hunt, epic tales of battles fought and won, lives lost, and worlds gone but not forgotten. Sibide is particularly relevant as both of these new releases on Yaala Yaala are records by student apprentices of the master Sibide, who spent years learning the way of the donsos, as well as of course, the music passed down from generation to generation.
Unlike Toba Seydou, featured on the other Yaala Yaala release on this list, who tracked down Sibide with the intention of becoming his apprentice, Abdoulaye Traore, learned to sing and play as a child, at the foot of his father, who eventually gave up music to return to farming, while Abdoulaye continued on, only to eventually be discovered during a performance, by Sibide, who was so impressed, he specifically requested that Abdoulaye become his apprentice. He studied for years and eventually become Sibide's main accompanist. This cd gathers up his first seven cassette releases, and again like Tora Seydou, Abdoulaye's music bears a striking resemblance to his master's, as well as to Tora Seydou's, the same sort of buzzing low strings, locked into repetitive grooves, looped sounding, repeated over and over, totally trance inducing, the vocals slipping from passionate wail, to hushed croon, the percussion super minimal, each track, a single riff, one part, the percussion and ngoni in perfect unison, in fact, in some ways, Abdoulaye' music is the most hypnotic of the three, the most stripped down and minimal, but equally as passionate and inspiring, spiritual and transcendent, these sounds, this music, is so magical, we could listen to this forever, even removed from its traditions, existing simply as notes and rhythms, these songs still retain the music's history, the blood and tears, the years of struggle and survival, of life and death, of birth and rebirth, imbuing the sound with an ineffable energy, a mysterious power, which is a rarity in most music for sure, and makes these sounds so special.
Two new releases this week, from this relatively new world music label, whose past releases have totally blown us away, in particular, a collection of songs from legendary musician, Yoro Sibide, master of the ngoni, a traditional African stringed instrument, but almost more importantly, a donso, one of the traditional hunters of Mali, a mysterious group of men who live separated from the rest of society, the music of the donso, performed to inspire the other donsos for the hunt, epic tales of battles fought and won, lives lost, and worlds gone but not forgotten. Sibide is particularly relevant as both of these new releases on Yaala Yaala are records by student apprentices of the master Sibide, who spent years learning the way of the donsos, as well as of course, the music passed down from generation to generation.
Tora Seydou Traore became obsessed with the music of the hunters as a child, so much so that when his father sent him out to care for the flock, he would build instruments from old junk and bicycle parts, and play music until his father would find him and beat him. And so it went until Traore went away to school, and then later decided to follow his destiny and track down Sibide, to learn from the master. Which he did, until he graduated five years late, and began to take on apprentices of his own. And of course it makes sense that Traore's music would bear such a strong resemblance to that of Sibide, warm and lush, dark and hypnotic, the buzzing strings locked into looping grooves, underpinned by simple percussion, with Traore's clear, strong powerful vocals, sometimes soaring dramatically, other times more subdued and crooned, often engaged in call and response with a chorus, the melodies spidery and minor key, the sound minimal and muted and so gorgeously trancelike, lots of layered buzz, warm whirling rumbles, minimal percussion, hand drums, shakers, unfurling clouds of sizzle and whir, a haunting cloud of soft washed out buzz wrapped around the tangled low end melodies, Traore's music, and the music of the donsos, so drone-y and minimal, so gorgeously haunting, utterly hypnotic, and so emotionally resonant, truly some of the most fantastic spiritual music we've heard...
The "Icelandic Invasion" continues, as Shadoks reissues some more crucial '60s/'70s psych-prog action from that island nation. Last time we highlighted the groovy "hairy funk" heaviness of Odmenn. This time, two more: the sole album by Svanfridur (1972), and this one, the debut from Trubrot (1969). Both bands demonstrate definite Beatles influence, and do so well, but also are quite eccentric in their own right, which perhaps can be ascribed to their Icelandic heritage?
Trubrot at their inception were already basically Iceland's #1 "supergroup", consisting of members of two popular R&B acts, Flowers and Hljomar. Big things were hoped for 'em, they even played for a few weeks in New York City, but they never really broke outside of Iceland, though they did go on to make several more well-regarded albums (which it would be nice if Shadoks would reissue as well). This one got them off to an excellent start, and as we also said about the Svanfridur reissue, we think it would go down well with fans of current Scandinavian psychsters Dungen. It's a mix of pop and prog, with bits of jazz and folk, and besides their own ambitious originals, it notably includes a diverse selection of cover songs, Trubrot doing Icelandic language interpretations of tunes originally performed by The Beatles ("Things We Said Today", to which they've added an amazingly kickass instrumental intro), Jose Feliciano, and The Supremes. And one more, the band's organist having worked up an arrangement of a song from the Richard Wagner opera "Tannhauser", which astonishingly enough got them some grief from the classical music authorities of the day. Ah, the old high brow/low brow battles fought by so many prog bands back then...
Likewise, their originals (also all sung in Icelandic, of course) also range all over the place, from the serious and sombre (in keeping with the Wagner) to much zanier fare, like the "dinner party" sound effects that take over in the middle of "Konopujufirinn" to the 24-second long "Bryjenda Boogie" which in its brevity is basically the boogie equivalent of Napalm Death, we guess. On the opposite extreme is the album ending programmatic nine-minute "Afgangar", a schizophrenic "rock opera" of sorts. Here, and everywhere, Trubrot will go from fuzzed out groove to gentle female vocals to vaudeville music hall numbers to musique concrete... hey why not? We said they were ambitious.
This reissue includes six bonus tracks mostly from a couple 1970 singles, and the cd booklet has lots and lots in the way of liner notes and photos.
Without fail. The new issue of this awesome, and HUGE, magazine all about "wild sounds from past dimensions" (aka the '60s and '70s) always arrives, like, the day before we're doing a list. I think we've mentioned this before. So, there's no way we could read through the whole thing -and- write all our other reviews. Heck, probably couldn't read the whole thing in one night even if we played hooky from work and that's all we did, that's how much stuff is packed into its 176 pages. So, struggling to give it just a skim right now, we can tell you that it's got in-depth (and often, we mean REALLY in depth) features on, among others: our favorite Dutch beat rockers Q65, Australia's The Master's Apprentices (part II to the saga begun last ish), The Kinks/Ray Davies, ESP's Connecticut "tribe" Cromagnon (all right!!), Texan punks The Nervebreakers, SoCal garage rockers The Hysterics, Milwaukee teen psych sensations Finch, guitarist Oli Halsall's proggy Patto, and plenty more. Also Johan Kugelberg captures our attention with "A Loser's Guide To '60s Punk Compilations", and then there's the pages and pages (and pages) of reviews. Whew! As always, recommended reading. And congrats to the UT crew on their 30th issue, 27 years after they first started publishing! Keep 'em coming!!
For the second edition of their Local Customs series, The Numero Group dig deep into the heart of Beaumont, Texas and uncover a regional archive of dusty, sunscorched sounds from Lowland Studios. Operating from the late sixties to the early seventies and barely surviving even in the best of times, the studio recorded a wide range of local flavor from a tight knit scene of bands for small independent labels. The 22 tracks here fall into primarily three groups: Heavy southern-fried boogie rock, Crosby Stills and Nash-ish folk, and nascent Yacht Rock, even though we're sure no one here had a yacht to rock out on. While some tracks on here aren't necessarily our cup of tea, it's hard not to get caught up in the music when the Numero Group has done such an amazing job of documenting the history of this scene, with thorough liner notes, a family tree of players and bands and lots of cool photos. A really fancy package.
We like the boogie stuff best, especially the bands Boot Hill and D.O.A. (and they look awesome too!). But then there's the final song by Donald Thomas called "Black Night Is Calling Me Home" with its too-high-in-the-mix vocalised guitar riff, a real hoot! Some of us here gonna get this just for that. We're sure anyone into classic rock from 1970-77 featuring dudes with long hair and mustaches singing about their ladies (think Molly Hatchet, Little Feat, Audience, CSN, BTO, Ten Wheel Drive, etc.) will probably find lots to like here. Though all we could think about while listening to this is: MORE COWBELL!!!!!
It seems like of all the Sublime Frequencies releases, all of which are incredible, many so incredible we felt compelled to make them aQ Records Of The Week, none has been as hotly anticipated as this one, ever since word of this release first surfaced, we would constantly get requests and inquiries, folks DYING to get their hands on a copy, and we'd be lying if we said we weren't pretty excited ourselves. So finally, here it is, Saigon Rock & Soul, a collection of fuzzy psychedelic Western influenced Vietnamese garage rock and pop, from the late sixties to the early seventies, heavily influenced by Western music of the time of course, but still somehow so totally and uniquely Southeast Asian.
And like most of these collections, the sounds vary greatly, from super distorted acid drenched psychedelia, to fuzz guitar funk, to wild ramshackle garage rock, to dark smoky soul ballads and pretty much every stop in between.
The history of this music, and the story of its creation, is as amazing as the music itself, as all of these tracks were recorded while the Vietnam war raged, recorded in makeshift studios, sometimes in US Army, camps, released as super limited 45's and tapes, the sounds constantly evolving as local musicians were exposed to the music American G.I.'s would bring over with them, from the surf rock of the Ventures and the Shadows, to stuff like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Santana, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Jimi Hendrix, hence the heaviness of some of these tracks, with bands emulating that super distorted guitar tone and that druggy sixties psychedelic vibe.
And some of this stuff really is heavy, the record opens with CBC Band's "Tinh Tuyet Voi", which explodes out of the gate with some seriously fuzzed out caustic guitar riffing, and then there's the "yeah yeah yeah" chorus, that almost sounds like the record is skipping, totally psychedelic and mesmerizing, wild drumming, lysergic leads - here's hoping Sublime Frequencies has a CBC Band reissue in the works!
The rest of the tracks, while maybe not quite as heavy, are still super fuzzy and rocking and groovy, from wild horn drenched exotica, to organ driven garage rock grooves, to funky psychedelic soul, horns all over the place, wild psych guitar leads, super distorted fuzz basslines, pounded piano, loose chaotic drumming, lots of distortion and reverb, even some sampled birdsong (!), the vocals wailed and howled and growled, some of the tracks getting all dark and soulful and smoky, no doubt a nod to the Motown sound, also a huge influence on Vietnamese music of the time, but for the most part, the sound of Saigon at the time was fuzzy and buzzy, wild and rambunctious, rocking and totally psychedelic. Fantastic stuff, and while many of the groups featured here are some of the most popular artists in Vietnam at the time, most of them have remained pretty much entirely unheard by Western ears, until now.
SUPER LIMITED of course, vinyl-only, and it's pressed on nice heavy vinyl, and housed in a thick full color gatefold sleeve, with extensive liner notes on the music, the musicians, and the era, as well as some amazing photos.
With the abundance of amazing comps and reissues of lost gems from all over Africa in the 1970s, it can get easy to forget that there is the here and now, and that there is equally damaged, brilliant, fucked up and contagious sounds being made throughout the globe RIGHT NOW! Don't get us wrong we love all the reissues of '70s psych glory that's being dug up and rediscovered all over the world, including so much from Africa, but damn it's so refreshing and invigorating to get a set of brand new sounds from across the globe being created at this very moment that grabs a hold of our imagination in such exciting ways. Shangaan is a new form of dance music coming out of Soweto that merges the sounds of traditional mbira (thumb piano) music with hyperactive synthesizers. It really is like nothing we've heard before. Call and response glory wrapped in 180 bpm craziness!
In some ways this feels like the spazzy cousin to the great Congotronics compilation from a few years ago, as that also showcased a new form of charged and body moving sounds coming out of Africa. But this is even more dance minded. You have to make sure you go online to YouTube and check out the actual dances that are performed to this music, so spirited, full of a new folklore and such a psychedelic aura. The sound of the songs is kind of like some early Nintendo game getting hijacked by Omar Souleyman armed with a karaoke machine and a troupe of boys, girls, men and women all ready to move on their feet as fast and furiously as possible. There are parts of the music that sound like Fever Ray played on the wrong speed, or what we imagine M.I.A. would blast at an afterparty. Forget about the World Cup, this may be the most mind blowing cultural phenomenon going down in South Africa that we are lucky enough to get to hear and appreciate NOW. Beyond recommended!
This one's pretty much an "add to cart" no-brainer; the subtitle says it all, "Afro Rock & Psychedelia In 1970s Nigeria". And it's on the wonderful Soundway label, who've brought us such prior treats as Nigeria Rock Special, Nigeria Disco Funk Special, and Ghana Soundz. Really, do you need to know more? There's 32 killer cuts spread across the two cds here, from almost as many bands, exuberant electric guitar wielding garage acts most of 'em, and funky too, super funky. Anyone eager for a sequel to that Nigeria Rock Special in particular, start freaking out now! Some of the names here are familiar from that comp or other reissues, but we don't think there's any overlap songwise. Others are way more obscure to our ears. So you get Ofege, Ofo The Black Company, The Mebusas, The Hygrades, Colomach, and The Action 13, alongside, among others, P.R.O. (People Rock Outfit), Chuck Barrister & The Voices Of Darkness, The Thermometers, The Comrades, The Ceejebs, The Funkees, The Hykkers, Bongos Ikwue, The Lawrence Amavi Group, The Ify Jerry Krusade, Sonny Okosuns & Paperback Limited, Cicada, The Identicals, and even a band called The Semi Colon! The Semi Colon's song is pretty badass, by the way, with Moog-y "Blow Your Head" style synth and wicka-wicka chicken scratch guitar, shades of The JB's for sure, James Brown's backup band probably a big influence on a LOT of these groups, along with psych rock from the West as well, especially various Frisco ballroom jammers. While there's variety, there's definitely a Nigerian scene "sound" of the era on display here, and that scene must have been a pretty competitive one, these bands are HOT. While there's some lovely, mellowed-out moments (like PRO's laidback ballad of "Blacky Joe"), mostly this collection consists of uptempo, dancefloor filling groovers, full of percolating percussion, wild wah-wah, and soulful vocal exhortations. A few have horns, there's a lot of funky electric organ, and in all cases, the rhythms are, not surprisingly, first and foremost the focus, driving these songs into your heart, mind, and soul via the involuntary head nodding, foot tapping, get up and get down reaction your body will have to 'em...
The compilation takes its name from The Black Mirror's "The World Ends", found on disc two. Meanwhile, "Soundway" by Wrinkars Experience, from disc one, could be the theme song for the label! Kinda akin to a Nigerian "Nuggets", this is indeed yet another awesome Soundway comp, one of our faves from them so far and that's saying a lot. Can't argue with two discs this funky and fuzzed, though! Comes nicely packaged with a 44 page booklet featuring a plenitude of liner notes and vintage photos. Totally recommended.
Another incredible collection from Honest Jon's, this one a compilation of early music from Istanbul, all recorded in the early part of the twentieth century, and strangely enough, according to the liner notes, all captured out of a culturally ignorant quest to gather up as much 'popular' music as possible, with various representatives of European labels and companies, the foremost being the Gramophone & Typewriter Company, doing everything in their power to record as much music as possible, eventually looking to local contacts, with some of the most prominent musicians of the day being recorded in hotel rooms or whatever space could quickly be converted into a makeshift recording studio. The liner notes explain in great detail the trials and tribulations of competing companies, the musical scene at the time, and the various musicians and their music, and while most of these names are probably unfamiliar, many of the performers here were considered, at the time to be the foremost performers / entertainers / musicians in Istanbul.
Which is obvious listening to this music, even close to 100 years later, the sounds and songs here are so intense and dramatic, so passionate and utterly lovely, moving and inspired, all of the music here non religious, more folk and classical influenced, but still imbued with the same sort of spirituality, the same sense of inspiration, gorgeous flurries of Eastern sounding classical guitar, sweeping soaring vocals over almost American sounding blues, weeping strings, unfurling lush minor key melodies, incredibly complex vocals wrapped around equally intricate folk music, classical piano, gorgeous almost liturgical sounding crooning, the breadth of sounds, of instrumentation, the varied voices, the sound ranging from impossibly high fidelity, to scratchy, barely audible crackly wax cylinders, all the music linked by a common tradition, a sprawling sonic history in music, a glimpse into the past, and like all the most amazing music throughout history, a sound both timeless and of its time, so moving, so inspirational, and so utterly lovely.
The cd comes in an incredible hardcover booklike packaging, the lp is quite swank as well, both with extensive liner notes and loads of amazing photos.
Oh how we love old 78s! The "antique" but still effective analog technology offering a window into the dusty past, the once-lively musical traditions of fading cultures from around the world, the atmospheric patina of surface crackle... Nowadays, thanks to collectors like Robert Millis, Jonathan Ward, Ian Nagoski, and (in this case) Frank Fairfield, there's been some great compilations of 78 rpm treasures released on more modern formats for us all to enjoy, often sourced from 78s the "ethnic" realm where there's still lots of good digging to be done by these dedicated souls. If you loved Victrola Favorites, Excavated Shellac, The Black Mirror, Sprigs Of Time, or other collections we've had along those lines, then the aptly titled Unheard Ofs & Forgotten Abouts is right up your alley!
There's a selection of 16 rare gramophone recordings presented here, all culled from the archives of Frank Fairfield, an LA musician whose own efforts are inspired by the sorts of old timey stuff he digs up on 78. This is basically a "mix tape" of a bunch of his faves, bound by no stylistic or geographic restrictions.
Amongst these tracks, which range in date from as early as 1916 to as late as 1964 (they were still releasing music on 78s in the sixties, in Africa), you get bagpipes from Scotland and France, blues from the States, festive dance music from Japan, field recording of Hopi hunting song, Indonesian "tembang" singing, Southern (and Midwestern) fiddlin', Byzantine liturgical chant, a Gypsy orchestra from New Jersey, "anonymous Sudanese wandering minstrels", and more. All all wonderful stuff. One of the big highlights for us might be the "exotic" Tahitian groove of George "Tanutu" Archer's rhythmic "Ama Ama" from 1945, which is what's practically rock n' roll played on pahu (Tahitian bass drum) and guitar, with chanted vocals. Surf music starts here! Also, "La Bamba" takes on a whole new character in the version heard here, by Mexican folk harpist Andres Huesca and band. And sinners take note, this disc winds up with the powerful sermonizing and testifyin' of one Reverend Frank Cotton, a not-entirely-spoken word piece entitled "By The Pool Of Siloam" that really stirs up the flock! Compiler Fairfield provides detailed liner notes on each track in the cd booklet, giving learned historical, musicological, and technological perspective on the recordings. It's clearly a labor of love, and comes highly recommended by us.
Pretty badass compilation, featuring the leading lights from the Woodsist label stable, who also seem to represent more broadly the current state of underground music, as it seems most of these folks have released lots stuff on loads of other labels, the new band m.o. seemingly being to release as much as humanly possible, but like we've said before, fuck it, if it works, and it sounds good, why the hell not? And it's still sounding pretty goddamn good to these ears. This lp / cassette sampler, manages to pretty much perfectly lay out the Woodsist formula (which is what a label sampler is supposed to do anyway right?), variations on Summery jangle, woozy lo-fi production, reverb and delay, pretty sunshine-y sixties style pop rendered all warped and dreamily off kilter. The names will no doubt be familiar to most folks by now: Woods, Skygreen Leopards, The Fresh And Onlys, Ducktails, Art Museums, Moon Duo, The Mantles, White Fence and more, as will the sounds, from sun dappled hippified Byrds style folk pop to reverb drenched doo wop-y dream pop to lysergic organ driven hypno garage groove, to Velvets-y repetitive rocking psychedelia, to ethereal ephemeral blissed out drift, to old school punkish power pop to hushed and lush Appalachian guitarscapery, the biggest surprise and quite possibly our favorite track being Moon Duo's contribution, a super stripped down, spare and spacious, minimal, almost dubby bit of space kraut mesmer, which makes sense as it's a cover of a reggae jam by Errol Dunkley. In fact, a couple other bands try their hands at covers, Skygreen Leopards do The Cure and City Center tackle the Grateful Dead!
Holy shit, is this long overdue, another incredible publication from the mighty Bazillion Points publishing house, this one, a long in the works compilation of the complete collection of the legendary Touch & Go punk zine, not the label, WAY before the label, there was this zine, an incredible collection of incendiary, funny as fuck, snotty and irreverent punk rockness. The work of Dave Stimson and Tesco Vee of the mighty Meatmen, Touch & Go set out to chronicle all of the happenings in the punk rock world, positive AND negative, never hesitating to call bullshit on any band or any record, but just as likely to heap crazy praise on sounds or folks so deserving.
Most of us were too young to be reading T&G back in the day, during the zine's 4 year lifespan, 1979-1983, it was several years before we discovered punk rock, and over the years, we probably only ever saw one or two of the 22 published issues, and always wanted more. So for most of us, this our first chance to experience Touch & Go in its entirety.
Classic old school layout, xeroxed in black and white, and hand assembled, covering all things punk rock all over the Midwest as well as in LA and New York and San Francisco and Boston and any other place kids were making a racket. Inside you'll find pretty much all the bands that mattered (and STILL matter): Black Flag, Minor Threat, Negative Approach, Die Kreuzen, Poison Idea, The Necros, Crucifix, Iron Cross, Discharge, The Misfits, the Avengers, Battalion Of Saints, JFA, SSD, 7 Seconds, the Effigies, Bad Religion, the Minutemen, the Fix, Scream, Faith and more more more. The book also adds essays by Byron Coley (Forced Exposure), Henry Owings (Chunklet), Peter Davis (Your Flesh), Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat / Fugazi / Dischord), Steve Miller (The Fix), John Brannon (Negative Approach), Corey Rusk (Necros / Touch & Go Records), Tesco Vee (The Meatmen), Keith Morris (Black Flag / Circle Jerks) and Henry Rollins (Black Flag / S.O.A.)!
As with all Bazillion Points publications, the book looks incredible, color cover printed inside and out, oversized soft cover, glossy, embossed, with printed fold over flyleafs, and classic flyers covering the end papers, while inside, every single issue, and every single page, close to 600 of 'em actually, of arguably the most important punk rock zine EVER.
So totally recommended. No self respecting music nerd / punk rocker / zine freak should be without one of these...
We've gone on at great length about our love of French black metal, the more grim and gnarled and fucked up and fierce the better. And it doesn't get a whole lot better than VI, a record we got a while back, but not enough to list properly, instead, the few copies we had sat lurking in the shadows...
But since it looks like we won't actually get more, we figured at least a few of you would love to get your blackened little paws on this sonic sickness, and sick it is. About as heavy and punishing and furious as French black metal gets, definitely on par with say Deathspell Omega, maybe not quite as weird and progressive, bur easily as intense and evil, the sound supremely black and utterly grim, but the vibe, and the atmosphere... so oppressive and so so evil. The guitars are massive, and so fast and buzzy, they almost blur into trancelike drones, the whole band a blasting black beast, careening wildly, only occasionally slowing down to something less than lightning speed, mixing in haunting melodies, strange angelic voices, but focusing mostly on the sheer brutality and black ferocity of their sound. Kind of shocked actually that these guys aren't huge. Anyone into orthodox French blackness, should definitely bow down.
More from the label: "In their first gospel, French black metal devil worshipping misanthropes VI launch a ceremonious attack on the sheep-like practices of God-fearing man. Armed with dark fervor, diabolic discipline, devilish devotion, frenzied insectoid riffing and apocalyptic blasting, the deviant duo unleash their profane scriptures amid a rapturous cataclysm of scorn and disgust. Abiding by an alternate set of tenets, VI dutifully exercise their (anti-)faith, whilst exorcising the belief system of the virtuous. Espousing hedonism, individualism and overt Satanism, these prayers are composed (in the native tongue) with reverence and respect, venerating all things vile and vicious. Consecration of the depraved; sanctification of the obscene; emancipation of the human spirit. Bless them, father, for they have sinned..."
Indeed!
Denver's hip hop punk rock retards the Warlock Pinchers, who flourished in the late '80s/early '90s, are either the stupidest band ever, or the most genius, probably the former, although we think it's some impossible/improbable mix of the two. You may have heard their classic anthem "Morrissey Rides A Cockhorse", a heady, hooky dose of borderline homophobic Smiths bashing, but like all of their jams, it's all in good (stupid) fun.
Their proper albums are chuck full of big dumb beats, crunchy metal riffs, big dumb rapping, and irresistable choruses, they're one of those bands who practically everyone we know LOVES, which makes way less sense once you hear them.
Bomb The Franklin Mint is tough to recommend to anyone but diehard fans, as it's a collection of early recordings, demos and practice sessions. That's not to say that this doesn't rule, it does, but it rules in a way that maybe only WP fans can really understand. Imagine very early Beastie Boys, but way more simplistic, the beats totally primitive, the guitar playing rudimentary, and the lyrics, alternatingly ridiculous, over the top, offensive and/or funny as fuck. And on these early jams, all that stuff is even more magnified, the sound even more raw and lo-fi and capital D dumb, but so fun and funny and infectious and fuck it, AWESOME.
We'd probably recommend tracking down Deadly Kun Fu Action / Pinch A Loaf and Circusized Peanuts first, the proper records do in fact rule, big time, fucked up and funny and funky, but listening to this, even the demos and practice sessions sound pretty bad ass, but then we LOOOOOVE the Warlock Pinchers, so we're not exactly objective. So fans, buy this, you definitely want it, especially for the old stuff, the first tape, most of which we'd never heard, for the rest of you, give it a try, check out the sound samples, prepare yourself for some awesomely inane over the top lo-fi goofiness, and you never know, you just might end up as weirdly obsessed as we are... [Only one sound sample, per the band's request]
For some reason, it seems to take German one man band Winterblut, about 4 years to write and record a new record, at least that's the pattern we've observed over the course of all four full lengths, and the interesting thing too, is that within that huge span of time between each record, the sound of Winterblut changes dramatically, 1999's Der 6. Danach was a fierce chunk of blazing, blasting grim Nordic style blackness, while 2003's Grund: Gelenkkunst found the band utterly transformed into a twisted, convoluted SST meets Voivod sort of black prog, and then 2007's Das Aas Aller Dinge found Winterblut returning to more traditional black metal territory, but dragging some of those post rockisms and progginess with him. So here we are ANOTHER four years later, with Von Den Pflichten Schones Zu Vernichten, and again, things have definitely changed, although right off the bat, this still definitely sounds like Winterblut (Allan named that tune within about 30 seconds of hearing this for the first time without being told wht it was!!), but the sound is much more raw, and primitive, and indeed grim, the opening, a lumbering atonal midtempo trudge, the guitars jagged and abrasive, the vocals a rasped croak, the riffs woozy and trancelike, eventually the song explodes in a frenzy of blasting blackness, only to slip back into warped dirgery, and that seems to be the new Winterblut sound, veering occasionally into bursts of black intensity, but spending most of its time at a wounded crawl, the Voivodness definitely rearing its head in those parts, sounding like Dimension Hatross at 16rpm, a sort of post prog Burzumic churn, a bit doomy, quite depressive, the riffs grim and frosty, the sound sharp and brittle, super atmospheric, the atonality and gnarled chordal shifts, giving the whole record a seriously creepy fucked up vibe, which sounds incredible and seriously twisted, and is making Von Den Pflichten Schones Zu Vernichten one of our new favorite black metal records, another killer chapter, in Winterblut's very slowly expanding catalogue of black buzz miserablism. So I guess we've got 4 more to revel in WB's immersive blackness, before it's time to check in again...
Back on list 126, I (Allan) wrote about my belated discovery of the greatness that is Wishbone Ash's self-titled 1970 debut. Well, now it's about time to follow that up with a rave review of another Wishbone Ash record, this being the newly remastered and expanded edition of their third album, 1972's "Argus". Giving this a few listens, I've come to the conclusion that while their first album is certainly somewhat more of a "heavy rock" outing (think Cream meets Thin Lizzy), "Argus" is equally great, and is actually destined to be one of my ALL TIME favorite albums! Seriously, I'm becoming kinda obsessed with listening to this, with its absolutely gorgeous, gentle melodies and its extended instrumental workouts. Some internet investigation reveals that I'm not alone -- this record is in fact considered by many fans to be Wishbone Ash's absolute masterpiece. They just got everything right on this release, from the evocative cover photo of an ancient sentry to the achingly beautiful, stirring music. I can't get enough of the three-part vocal harmonies, the dual guitar leads, or the melancholic power of the riffs. Favorite tracks include the beautiful British folk of "Leaf And Stream", the anthemic "Warrior", and the shoulda-been-a-pop-hit "Sometime World". The whole album has a timeless vibe. Maybe you could call their style "rural progressive" rock? It's melodic, mystical and complex in ways that make it sound simple.
In addition to being remastered, this new 30th anniversary edition includes three bonus tracks: the entire "Live From Memphis" promo-only EP. These live-on-the-radio versions of "Phoenix" (from their debut) and "Jail Bait" and "The Pilgrim" (from their second album, "Pilgrimage") add another half-hour to the disc, being even more jammed-out and epic than the original studio cuts! So even if you already have the old cd of "Argus", you should consider replacing it with this disc, these bonus tracks are worth it! The loud-soft dynamics and interlocking instrumental loveliness of the live "Pilgrim" are positively 'post-rock', but better of course.
Truly 'classic' rock that needs to be rediscovered. My advice for this week: pick up that new Champs album, and order a copy of this as well. You'll be set for a while then!
Oh man is this good. Total classic riff heavy Swedish blackness, thrashing, chugging, blasting, from one of our favorite long running Swedish hordes, who seem reinvigorated, with this, their first record in more than 4 years, and their first with new vocalist Legion, he of the mighty Marduk (and the legendary Ophthalamia), which only adds to the group's already pretty bad ass musical pedigree: Satanic Slaughter, Arch Enemy, Nifelheim, Illwill, Dismember, Mercyful Fate, Bloodbath, Seance, the Haunted, Brujeria. And if that wasn't enough, on this album they've also enlisted a serious cadre of metal guests: Kerry King from Slayer, Gary Holt and Lee Altus of Exodus, Hank Shermann of Mercyful Fate, Jim Durkin of Dark Angel, and Andy LaRoque of King Diamond!
Which all should give you an idea of what you're in for with Witchery circa 2010, super tight, ultra heavy, uber polished, blackened thrash, not raw or grim or fucked up or even kvlt, this is seriously well crafted heaviness, with incredible riffs, killer drumming, super memorable melodies, complex arrangments, BIG choruses, and some fucking fantastic guitar playing, from chugging churning black hole riffage, to soaring melodic leads, to total classic Maiden style harmonizing, and as much as we dug the old vocalist, Legion really cranks things up a notch, his hellish bellow, so powerful and intense, yet somehow still strangely melodic, not to mention how bad ass he looks in the band photo, complete with flaking rotting red skinned devil face and huge blood red devil horns.
Needless to say the metalheads around aQ have ben LOVING this shit, but be warned, as mentioned above, this is in no way underground or ultra raw or really all that black, instead, it's just seriously well crafted riff-ed out heaviness, that totally slays, so if you're in the market for some kick ass metallic crush, and love big riffs and heavy guitars, and don't mind a bit of melody and a decent production, then dig in. Definitely a new fave!
Woven Bones are an awesome band from Austin, TX (see the Casual Victim Pile comp) who bring a more punky and dark vibe to the recent wave of great garage rock we've all been getting swept up by as of late. They are for sure one of those bands who could have been from almost any time, '86 or '96 or now, as there isn't that certain specific sonic flavor of the minute, the reverb and the feedback and the noise and the irony that seems to be part and parcel of much of the current garage rock pack. This is more meat and potatoes, dark and gritty classic garage rock, with plenty of fuzz and a distinctly gloomy overcast feel. They kind of remind us of what it would sound like if Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees covered classic punk bands like The Wipers, Fear, Angry Samoans, The Dicks or The Urinals. It's a thick and chunky sound delivered with total conviction and an almost understated aggression. We're also reminded of total garage rock legends like The Mummies and The Gruesomes. Woven Bones is one of those bands that will totally appeal to old school garage punkers who could care less about the recent wave of lo-fi weirdo rock hipsters, as well as winning over younger folks who do love all that new stuff but know the real deal when they hear it. This is fucking great!
Super cool new magazine from right here in San Francisco covering all sorts of rad music, art, writing and filled with really top notch photography. This is no sloppy hand xeroxed zine, this is a really nice looking and printed magazine that feels really genuine and earnest in its mission to expose and bring light to lots of the interesting sights and sounds coming out of the Bay Area underground. The debut issue features interviews with Sic Alps, Bridez, a photo spread from Hamburger Eyes, the trippy watercolors of Augustus Thompson and lots more. A really good way for folks from far away to get a nice snapshot of what's going on here in San Francisco, and also a nice reminder for all of us who live here to appreciate all the awesome stuff that is being created here in the Bay Area. ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
We just woke up. It's like 7am and we're pretty sleepy - but tomorrow's "list day" and there's still records to be reviewed... Let's see what effect this Michael Yonkers + GR lp will have on us.... woah! Better'n coffee... these two plug their electric guitars directly into your frontal lobes! With incessant, reverbed, choo-choo train rhythms on rattling percussion to make you get up and go. Alien distortodelic rock n' roll. Yowza.
Or, maybe, we're still asleep... 'cause we've GOTTA be dreaming. Is it really true that outsider underground guitar wranglers Michael Yonkers and Gregory Raimo team up on this lp? Yes indeed they do! Milwaukee's Yonkers is a big AQ fave best beloved for his 1969 proto-punk Microminiature Love album, and continues to kick out the jams 40 years later. Youthful French motorpsychoguitarist Gregory Raimo we also really dig, both in his badass band Gunslingers and for his krauty solo album GR & Full-Blown Expansion. That these two would collaborate actually makes perfect sense. A couple months of trans-Atlantic 4-track tape trading by these two resulted in the 9 songs on this record, that alternate between Yonkers and Raimo compositions, not that you can tell. Each added their own elements to each other's songs, frying 'em even further, as you can imagine when, besides mere guitars, the two are credited with such things as "drumming feedback" and "wall of noise".
We already alluded to the rattling perc, and pedal-mashed muzz of distortion that's ever-present. Perhaps redundantly, GR wrote a song entitled "Distortion, Blow My Mind!". Based on his Gallic ranting amidst gurgling geetar skree, we're of the opinion it already did! Meanwhile, Yonkers sounds as wearily Iggyish as ever on the gunked up garage of "Why Didn't", and kinda old-timey too, on the gospel-blues-punk (?) of "The News". And like that awesome GR&FBX disc, this lp mixes Bo Diddleyisms with hypnotic psych drone.
Whoa. Haven't even had breakfast yet, and we feel like we've already definitely gotten our daily dose and more of slashing distorted guitars and trance inducing rhythmic in the red blowouts. It's gonna be a good day.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES.
Here's the second pressing of the 2009 EP by Zola Jesus, whose neo-goth theatrics have made quite a big splash around these parts, especially with her 2010 Stridulum EP. Zola Jesus (born Nika Roza Danilova) had been trained in her formative years as an opera vocalist, but she's far more interested in taking a similar path as Siouxsie Sioux and Diamanda Galas by grafting her powerful vocals onto a grim post-punk latticework of cold, almost no-wave electronics. The arrangements are skeletal with little more than mechanical drum programming and simple atonal melodies, performed with a naive panache more in keeping with the anti-aesthetic of early Ariel Pink or John Maus. There's tons of lo-fi, energy negating reverb and swaths of blackened noise (after all she did have a split LP with Burial Hex on Aurora Borealis!) that splatter throughout the seven tracks on Tsar Bomba (the title alludes to the world's largest nuclear bomb held in the Russian arsenal... ah, nihilism!). The dichotomy between her vocals and the arrangements shouldn't work; but against the odds, it works magically, coming across like an early Cabaret Voltaire fronted by Lydia Lunch. As with the first pressing, there's 500 of these in print. ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*
