For all the praise that's heaped on Thurston Moore whenever his name or his band Sonic Youth come up, it's sometimes easy to forget what an amazing and unique guitar player he really is. Sure he's in one of the coolest bands EVER, and he's proven to be an adventurous music maker in the avant-garde, and yeah he looks so rad when rocking out on stage, but beyond all that, is a truly spiritual connection to the guitar which he's been able to channel into creating some of the best music of the last quarter century.
We were excited to discover that this album was just Moore playing acoustic guitar, as we really love to hear him play sans pedals and crazy effects, 'cause he manages to still conjure up incredible sounds, creating such sensual and pleasing results from just 12 steel strings. Recorded in loving memory of Jack Rose, these 12-string meditations are some of the most soulful and chilling tracks that Moore has ever recorded. It's so cool that even while playing acoustic, you can hear so many of the trademark guitar sounds and styles that have found their way into Sonic Youth songs over the years. We know that he puts out lots of one off solo recordings or collaborations and it can be hard to keep up sometimes, but do not sleep on this one, it's one of the finest recordings of his mind blowing career.
This is the first we've heard from Scottish soundscaper Nackt Insecten, even though there have apparently been loads of limited cd-r's and tapes that came before, a fantastic melange of minimal repetition a la Steve Reich and Terry Riley, and more modern spaced out psychedelic minimalism like Sunroof! and Astral Social Club, Our Love Will Destroy The World and Axolotl.
Pulsing drones, lush layered overtones, thick synth swells, a sort of ur-drone raga, the rhythms crunchy and distorted, a blistery haze of humid sound that dissipates into angelic drifts. Kosmische folk rife with tinkling chimes, shimmering melodies, all very mesmerizing and meditative and new agey. Spidery acoustic guitars intertwine with slow shifting slabs of low end throb, soaring ad blissed out and richly effulgent. Chugging synths churn and roil, wreathed in clouds of distorted prismatic buzz, a hypnotic minimalism that culminates in the synthy sci fi soundtracky final jam, thick buzzy tendrils of electric guitars wind themselves around pulsing eighties synths and a soft cacophony of percussion, a heady, lysergic melding of Sunroof! and Majeure, Astral Social Club and Zombi, taking the Carpenterish soundtrack sound so popular these days and grafting it to a more minimal cosmic otherworldliness. Killer stuff.
This one shouldn't need to much of a description, these have been flying off the shelves since we first got them in. Originally intended to be a Record Store Day release, this double lp collects essentially ALL of the Oh Sees singles: The Carol Anne 7", Peanut Butter Oven 12", the split 7" with Paul Cary, the split 7" with The Intelligence, the Grave Blockers ep, the Tidal Wave single, the Blood In Your Ear single, the Sub Pop single, the tour split 7" with Jay Reatard, as well as a few previously unreleased surprises. The first lp is actually the same stuff that was on the bonus cd that came with the Zork's Tape Bruise lp released on Kill Shamen, while the second lp is newly compiled. It's a pretty bad ass collection, Thee Oh Sees were and are definitely one of those bands who seem to do their best rocking in the short format, and these are definitely some of our favorite Oh Sees jams. Absolutely essential for fans of course, and newbies, well, we can't really think of a better place to start.
Need more? Here are several excerpts from reviews of a few of the singles included in this collection:
Blood In Your Ear: Some fuzzy, distorted lo-fi sixties pop infused garage rock that totally rocks. Crunchy, distorted, fuzzy, groovy, doused in reverb and delay, the vocals a distorted yelp, the guitars all jangly, this time around there's even some harmonica, stomping and hooky and kick ass. That's just the A side. The flipside just might be one of our favorite Oh Sees jams yet, all brooding and power poppy, reminding us of the Wipers, but with strange bloopy keyboards, and a weary washed out minor key vibe, so super catchy, we find ourselves humming it through the days, and running to the front of the store when it gets played. Awesome.
Peanut Butter Oven: Full of that sixties big beat cavernous murky wall of feedback pop that we love. "Kingsmeat" is all melancholy Farfisa over upbeat rhythms and ringing feedback tones before turning up the Bo Diddley pace for "The Freak Was Clean", before the almost shoe-gazy "Kids In Cars" winds us down quite nicely.
Tidal Wave: Totally perfect, ultra catchy blasts of pure garage pop genius!
Split with The Intelligence: The two Ohsees songs end before you know it but they're so good and infectious that we've just been playing them over and over and over.
You get the picture. Super limited too, of course. Pressed on red and green vinyl, and housed in a topless magic marker fake tattoo Oh Sees fan boy sleeve. Nice! We have a bunch, but it's sold out, and the label is in the process of making more, so if you order one, and we've already run out, might take a week or two to get them back in.
An odd matchup indeed. We weren't sure whether this was a joining of convenience, since both bands are now labelmates, or if it went deeper than that, considering the two groups are sort of iconoclasts, Markus Popp and his Oval project constantly reinventing himself and following his own idiosyncratic path, and Liturgy, whose 'transcendental black metal' has been known to ruffle a few feathers, and whose frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix has been outspoken in his academic/spiritual approach to black metal, which seems to be at odds with the true grim hordes, not to mention his distinctly UN black metal pretty boy appearance. Regardless, these two definitely make a good team, at least in terms of splitting a record. We were secretly hoping this was in fact a collaboration, but this is the next best thing.
Popp's Oval has definitely moved on from those beloved skipping cd underwater dronescapes we love so much, his return heralded a move toward manipulating acoustic instrumentation, and the tracks here continue in that direction. The main song here is a sort of glitchy electronic flecked post rock, sounding a bit like a more warped and abstract Tortoise, all manner of squiggles and squelches tangled up into the loping rhythm and melancholic strum, the result blissed out and melodic. The following three tracks are brief bits of experimentation, solo guitar it seems, processed buzz, transformed into distinct melodies that sound less like guitars and more like thumb piano or gamelan.
Liturgy subvert all expectations and come out with some seriously chugging churning math rock, repetitive and droney, looped and mesmerizing, it's pretty compelling, a sound we love, and these guys nail it, it's not until about halfway through that any black metal riffing comes in, but instead of launching into it, the track slips into something way more minimal, a haunting, pulsing electronic ambience, so gorgeous and hushed, until FINALLY, the song does explode into that soaring and majestic transcendental black metal we love so much, but even here, the blasting is kept to a minimum, the rhythms more midtempo, seemingly a sonic extension of the math rock opening. Great stuff. Definitely has us chomping at the bit for the new full length, and hoping for more of this transcendental math rock!
This too was a Record Store Day release, and thus was extremely limited, so not sure if we can get more once this batch sells out. Includes a download coupon as well.
How do you follow up one of the most well received and influential albums of the last decade? Well if you're Panda Bear you just make another brilliant record that isn't afraid to veer from the formula of the previous album, the beloved Person Pitch, and create a new tapestry of trance inducing unrivaled pop bliss. While not as immediately catchy and in your face as Person Pitch, Tomboy displays a more nuanced and subtle approach to Panda Bear's production and songwriting, while still filled with such lush sound and so many golden hooks and dreamy melodies. There is almost a song cycle feeling to Tomboy, each song interconnected and unfurling with such a tranquil and hypnotic flow It's remarkable how Panda Bear is able to sing almost nonstop throughout this album, yet his voice really does still seem like another instrument, perfectly floating just above the sea of sound below, radiating a glowing sonic warmth throughout the album.
It would have been easy for Panda Bear to do another take at Beach Boys influenced psychedelia, and there is plenty of that still present, but we love how he took his time making this record and really created a new record with a new sound with its own singular vision. There are moments of course, that seem to follow in the considerable wake of Person Pitch, but there are so many new sounds and approaches which all serve to make Tomboy its own fantastic and hauntingly original beast, as potent and satisfying as his past glories. Maybe even moreso. So great!
Last Rites? Well yeah, most folks, if they had to bet, probably woulda predicted that wizened Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling would have been dead by now, of drug abuse if not old age. Certainly not living out a long overdue rock star dream of critical adulation, sold out shows, flashy clothes, and marriage to a shockingly young, stylish wife (with whom he just had a baby)! So the title is ironic, since the dude seems to have an unexpected new lease on life. Seriously, who woulda thunk it, that in the year 2011 (which still sounds like a futuristic date to us in it now, right?), ol' Bobby Liebling and his band Pentagram, who began way back in 1971, would still be going strong, stronger than ever in some ways? Bobby's even become a hipster fashion icon of sorts, too, thanks to his wife's blogging...
Not only is there a new Pentagram album (this one) but Bobby's also been touring, something some of us never thought we'd see happen (and now that we have, will never forget). Pentagram made two appearances in SF in the past year or two, the first what we thought was once-in-a-lifetime chance to see this seminal doom metal band, which surpassed all expectations and RULED, and the second a bit of trainwreck, featuring a woefully unprepared lead guitarist and some godawful blues jams. Both times, though, Bobby was all showman, surprising everybody with his Mick Jagger moves, strutting his stuff in expensive boots and skinny designer jeans. The crotch-grabbing and pelvic thrusting was a bit disconcerting, though, considering that from the neck up, the man looks to be about 90 years old, an ancient, frizzy haired, goggle-eyed Muppet. But considering that so much of Pentagram's lyrics/imagery is horror-related, that kinda works for him (and for the groupies??). We don't even think he acted like that back in the day, we've seen live Pentagram footage from the '80s where he's just hanging on the microphone stand, not shimmying across the stage like it's the T.A.M.I. show, or rolling around on the ground a la Iggy Pop.
So, what about this new album? Does it fulfill the promise of the first "comeback" show we saw, or fall down like the second? Well, glad to report it's indeed a worthy addition to the Pentagram discography! Bobby sounds pretty darn good here, belting it out with ghoulish gusto. And he's teamed up for the first time in years with guitarist Victor Griffin, who was Pentagram's riff master general on such classic albums as Relentless (1985), Day Of Reckoning (1987), and Be Forewarned (1994). Griffin wasn't yet back on board for the shows we saw here in SF, so that makes Last Rites even more of an exciting event.
As usual with Pentagram's albums, this one's a mix of new material and old songs from the '70s that they never recorded for a proper album before. Thus true Penta-fans will, for instance, recognize "Walk In The Blue Light" from the First Daze Here demos compilation, and they even do a couple songs by Stone Bunny (Bobby's pre-Pentagram band circa 1970). All very cool to hear in these new versions. But newly written tracks form the bulk of the album, and (also as usual) they perfectly continue the vintage Pentagram sound, heavy, Sabbathy, psychedelic... how could they not with Liebling singing and Griffin on guitar? They also mix in some slightly more modern sounding dirgery on tracks like "8". The only song that we really feel a bit 'meh' about is "American Dream", on which, for some reason, Liebling relinquishes the mic to Griffin, who sorta sounds like his ex-Palace Of Skulls bandmate Wino. So it sticks out as a Place Of Skulls-ish number, especially considering that the rhythm section here is also from Place Of Skulls. And that song's overtly political lyrics are not very Pentagram-y as far as we're concerned. But otherwise, this is all pure Pentagram magic, better than 2004's Show 'Em How and almost up there with the last two Liebling did with ex-bandmate Joe Hasselvander, 1999's Review Your Choices and 2001's Sub-Basement. Penta-fans, and all classic doom lovers, rejoice!
This is the second collaboration between the stalwart minimalist composer Charlemagne Palestine and the electro-acoustic ensemble Perlonex, who may be Germany's answer to AMM. Yes, the title is an allusion to the Gershwin tune, since the name of the club where these recordings took place in Vienna is called Porgy & Bess - the opera from which that song is taken. The division of labor for these sessions found Perlonex on sinewave generator, turntable, guitars, motors, and percussion, mustering huge swelling arcs of drone, texture, and controlled chaos, with Palestine taking up piano, vocals, and cognac glass, which he's presumably emptied a number of times throughout these sessions. Palestine cycles through rather graceful notes on the piano, building the intensity alongside his German compatriots. Each of the three extended pieces is a variation on a theme of restrained electro-acoustic explorations with slow-burning dynamics and with Palestine offering a gravelly Beefheart-like vocal extemporization of the lyric "it ain't necessarily so" - at times nasally thin, at times a plaintive spoken delivery, at times a thick bellow, at times a raving lunatic. With the arrangements here taking up the more subdued sounds of Supersilent / AMM through scrapes and drones, Palestine's vocals stand in stark relief. Limited stock.
Peter, Bjorn & John have redeemed themselves bigtime with this new outing! Their last album Living Thing, really sounded flat to our ears and was such a letdown after the thrilling pop they delivered on their breakout album Writer's Block. Well with Gimme Some, these Swedes have returned to the top of their game and it looks like this is going to be a major contender for pop record of the summer and maybe even the year! Ultra catchy melodies and hooks that hit hard, exuberant and energetic, and best of all no filler in the mix, this is what a perfect pop record should sound like. It's a record that has so much zest and an effortless vibe, while also containing some surprisingly rocking moments, and that certain charm that makes the way they craft songs so damn addictive. Who else can incorporate cowbell into one of the best pop songs of the year like they do on "Second Chance"?! This is proving to be one of those pop records like the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart debut or Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. We can't wait to blast this all summer long and beyond!
Latest chunk of blackened heaviness from aQ faves, Pig Heart Transplant, who we just discovered are now aQ neighbors! Not sure most folks would be all that thrilled to discover these guys were your new neighbors, not once they feasted their ears on this stuff. Downtuned pounding sludge, Godflesh style, or maybe Swans, metal laced with industrial pummel, massive grinding guitars, monstrous drumming, harsh vox that slip into deep bellowed croons, some sort of churning, chugging avant noise rock doom, like some impossible hybrid of Swans/Wolf Eyes/Godflesh/Eyehategod, or something. The track has a rad outro of abstract buzz, laced with strange bursts of metallic clatter, washed out and eerily hypnotic.
PHT are up against Juhyo, who we've never heard before, but after hearing this are way into checking out more. A glitched out electronic buzz gives way to something much more haunting and droney, deep sonic swells beneath processed reverbed samples, the vibe super cinematic, the track drifts and drifts until it's swallowed up by a wall of SuUNNO)))-like thrum, pelted with streaks of sine wave high end, before melting down into a droney creepy sample heavy drift. So good.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Housed in super swank silk screened silver on black sleeves with similarly printed and #'d inserts.
A super limited, and super swankly packaged Record Store Day release from our pals at Temporary Residence, two brand new tracks from the mighty Pinback. The A side is classic Pinback, all loping basslines and lush vocal harmonies, poppy, dreamy, melodic and gorgeously minimal. The B side might be our favorite Pinback jam in a while, it sounds almost like slo-mo Heavy Vegetable, in the phrasing, and the mathy arrangement, still minimal and stripped down, but the bass and vocal interplay and the hooks make it a killer.
And the packaging is killer too, a printed paper bag designed to look like a evidence bag, sealed shut with special red Record Store Day tape, each one stamped and dated. Inside there's a full color sleeve, the inside printed to look like some sort of redacted document, and also included is a little insert with some mysterious computer code printed on it. So cool!
VERY LIMITED!! We have a handful up for grabs, but since it was a Record Store Day release, these won't be around for very long, and when we run out, that'll be it!
The Raveonettes have been on fire over the last several years. Their last two albums remain two of our favorite pop albums to come out last decade, and with their latest, Raven In The Grave, they've delivered another breathtaking and seductive set of songs that we've already been playing nonstop. This album finds the band exploring a grittier and darker vibe that really suits them surprisingly well. The songs are both dirgy and sexy, mysterious and catchy. Before the latest wave of girl group inspired lo-fi pop bands hit the scene, The Raveonettes laid some nice groundwork and offered up a blueprint for how to take those influences and incorporate them into a very modern sound. This album even has some really nice shoegaze undertones, that matched with the grit and grim and ominously dark production make for such a seductive listening experience. Like sleepwalking through deserted city streets on an extra dark night, these are perfect songs for dazed and glazed fever dreams. Highly recommended.
Probably best known for their song "Prehistoric Dog" and its hilarious video, that found the big bearded Red Fang folks, rocking out in their kitchen, drinking about a million cans of beer, and then fashioning the empty beer cans into chain mail, helmets and various weapons, with which they proceed to beat the living crap out of a troupe of L.A.R.P.-ers in the park. That's 'live action role players', but the L.A.R.P.-ers have the last laugh as they procure a magic sword and proceed to slay the members of Red Fang, tearing them limb from limb, head from torso, Monty Python style. And somehow, those visuals perfectly suited the sounds a sort of big riff, slow groove, Karp meets the Melvins stoner metal crush.
This new record finds the band taking that same sound and polishing it up a bit, adding some extra psychedelic filigree, a pretty slick, ultra heavy production, the songs more complex and epic, with a killer bout of dueling harmony guitars, but the Melvins vibe looms large, the vocals sounding especially Buzz-worthy.
But then the second track finds Red Fang getting seriously poppy, slipping into Torche / Floor territory, which to be honest, they maybe weren't all that far removed from in the first place, And that song "Wires" is pretty killer, hooks galore, more catchy psychedelic guitars, almost Queens Of The Stoneage sounding vox, and what sounds like some thick buzzing organ. And actually, much of the record plays out like some alternate, heavier, weirder QOTSA, and hell we're not complaining. Those jams definitely harken back to that Kyuss / QOTSA transition, where the difference between the two was negligible, and the songs were simultaneously catchy as hell, but crushingly heavy. We're also reminded of Open Hand, who for a while seemed destined to be the new QOTSA. But it's not all sweet pop and catchy hooks, not by a longshot, even at it's poppiest, the sound is still heavy, and those poppier numbers sit alongside some serious sonic reminders of their old, more feral sound, that whole Karp thing for sure, but updated with the sound of groups like Kylesa and Baroness, epic downtuned crush and pounding mathy pummel woven into epic stoner metal grooves, which just so happen to be catchy as fuck. Nice packaging too.
And in case you somehow never saw that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuRKRFjm-HA
A super special limited Record Store Day release from these Swedish duo, a production team who has worked with Fever Ray and the Knife among others, but who on their own create super cinematic synthscapes that definitely appeal to fans of Umberto, Zombi, Majeure and the rest of the new wave of Carpenter worship.
This 2 track 12" was recorded live in Sweden in 2010, and features two sprawling sidelong epics, each a fantastically evocative chunk of synth heavy soundtracky pulse and shimmer. The A side is some seriously spaced out krautdrone drift, equal parts Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter, the sound grows more and more dense as the track progresses, from minimal, to a dark haunting throb, the sound more noisy, more aggressive, before exploding in a final burst of frantic synth freakout. The flipside unfurls sweeping pulses that seem to swoop from speaker to speaker, a dreamy melancholy melody draped over the top. Distant swells, thick swaths of low end buzz, the vibe super cinematic, and darkly tense, multiple melodies overlap and interact, layer upon layer, the sound ever more dense and dark, the second half finds the sounds changing dramatically, the percussion ultra distorted, the eighties soundtrack feel even more pronounced, again finishing off with a barrage of wild glitched out synths. Great stuff.
And again, a SUPER LIMITED Record Store Day release. We were lucky to get enough copies to list post-RSD, which means these most definitely won't be around for long.
Latest from these Texas based heavies, and their first record to make it on the aQ list. Which seems weird considering how fucking kick ass and so very aQ this stuff sounds. Plus as much as we try not to judge a book by its cover, how can we not when said cover is a sprawling expanse of forest, with a rainbow soaring overhead, and in the midst of this jungle like foliage, a row of full stacks and a drumkit, right in front of what appears to be a river. Hell had we not already heard this, we would have been sold big time. And then, there's the fact that the first two minutes of record opener "Candle Black" essentially sounds like a Slayer 45 spinning at 33rpm, one of THOSE riffs, and then when the band does kick in, and cranks it up, it sounds like a doom-ed out stonery sludge combo channeling Slayer, into something much less speed metal, and way more lurching, lumbering doom sludge majesty. The band locking into mesmerizing and supremely headbangable grooves, the vocals a gruff growly bellow, the sound slipping from low slung riffery, to soaring epic almost-post-rock, to churning math flecked doom, to death march plod and back again.
Four songs, nearly 40 minutes, the longest jam 14+, the shortest nearly 7, this is dense, chugging, crusty, metallic, grim, doom-ed, sludge-y, slow burn, blackened, tripped out, mathy, stonery, Sabbathy heaviness that will no doubt hit the spot for anyone into similarly minded outfits like Bongripper, The Sword, Sourvein, Eyehategod, etc...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, housed in a super heavy, deluxe gatefold sleeve. Includes digital download too!
Once a member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster, Conrad Schnitzler evolved into one of the most distinctive artists within the Krautrock scene. Through such seminal albums as Ballet Statique and Con, Schnitzler developed an uncompromising aesthetic that blossomed beyond the cosmic expansiveness of his fellow psychedelic journeymen and into oblique experiments whose bleak results were the templates that inspired post-industrial expressionists such as MB, Giancarlo Toniutti, Arcane Device, and Cranioclast, not to forget about his impact on the works of Emeralds, Omit, and Oneohtrix Point Never.
10.10.84 is a document of one of Schnitzler's 'kassetten konzert', during which he played back a number of pre-recorded cassettes through upwards of six decks that he would sometimes suspend from a belt around his waste and broadcast through a megaphone wired to a metal helmet that he wore on his head. Given his studies with Joseph Beuys in the '60s, one could postulate that these performances might also warrant some theatrical gestures given the mobility of this set-up. For this konzert recorded in Berlin, Schnitzler overlays sweeping oscillations, clouds of static, and nervous electronic percolations, all of which hold a metallic sheen as if each of these sounds could sharpen knives intent on scraping out the collective inner ear canal of the audience. While the step sequencing of his more accessible works isn't all that present, scattershot firings of horror-laden synth notes burst throughout Schnitzler's signature use of heavily filtered electrical tones. Limited to 250 copies, of which we probably have the last ones.
Hot damn, this band just keeps getting better and better. While their name and image can sometimes lead you to believe Shannon And The Clams are just a campy band who wanna have fun, the real truth is that they are some of the best songwriters to emerge out of the great garage pop scene in San Francisco over the last few years. Channeling the best elements of girl groups, haunting punk rock, fired up garage rock, and early rock n' roll, Shannon and her Clams fit right at home alongside local pals like Ty Segall, Hunx & His Punx, and Thee Oh Sees.
There is something totally unique about how they are able to merge all of their different sides and styles and influences into a cohesive force that grabs your attention and never lets go. Imagine The Cramps covering Richie Valens or Ronnie Spector covering The Gun Club. We've dug everything they have released so far, but this new full length is maybe their finest moment yet!
Latest batch of blissy trippy dreaminess from Sleep Over, aka Stephanie from aQ faves Silver Pines, and it's a doozy, a lush, washed out chunk of soft focus psychedelic dream pop for sure. Lush swells of warm buzz wash over swoonsome melodies, eighties style beats are submerged in a sea of warped and woozy laid back ambience, the sound ethereal and shoegazey, very 4AD, a sort of slo-mo electro pop, rife with gorgeous hazy vocal harmonies, peppered with bits of electronics here and there, the whole thing drags dreamily, as if someone had a finger on the record while it played (and spin it at 33 instead of 45 and it sounds seriously witch house-y).
The B side begins with a burst of skittery programmed rhythms, over distant swells and disembodied vox, the vibe would almost be funky if it weren't so murky and spaced out. The sound is like some primitive remix, bloops and bleeps surface amidst the muted thrum, synths swell and recede, all wreathed in a pulsing downtempo murky driftscape, the vocals growing more and more abstract and minimal, a blurred field of swirls and whorls, a fantastically druggy bit of dreamy ambient driftpop.
Pressed on heavy pink/purple transparent vinyl, and housed in a super thick full color jacket, and yeah, most likely pretty dang limited...
Another kick ass single from these Swedish hard rockers, this time on Kemado. Featuring members of both Witchcraft and Graveyard, Spiders kick up a serious sonic shitstorm, a super hooky heavy mix of classic rock, Southern rock and hard rock, the sound falling somewhere between the Hellacopters, Skynrd and Graveyard, but it's the vocals that really make Spiders stand out, even amongst the recent crop of female fronted hard rocking combos like Loon, Royal Thunder, Jex Thoth and all the rest.
The riffs are big, the guitars are heavy, grooves galore, hooks too, the A side is a total Southern rock throwback, but cranked up for modern more hard rocking tastes, there's even a bad ass double time psychedelic wah guitar freakout near the end. The B side is a bit more classic rock, with super dynamic stop/start riffage, and the vocals, already powerful, get super intense, pushed to the limit, all rough and raspy and threatening to crack at times. Just like the other 7" on Valley King (which we still have if you still need one), we can't stop listening to these jams over and over. And now more than ever, we're dying for a full length.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each one hand numbered.
Wow, did you know that the debut record by purported Peruvian princess Yma Sumac (1922-2008), was the biggest selling release of 1950? This isn't that album, Voice Of The Xtabay, though, rather it's her 1971 (yes, once again, 1971 blows the mind) rock-oriented comeback attempt, Miracles, this remastered reissue being the first time officially on cd for this rare record, which didn't stay in print very long originally, due to legal differences between Sumac and her label. So not so many folks heard this one, but now they can, if they dare!
While one could perhaps imagine something even more far-out from Sumac in '71, her fabled five octave range offering tantalizing possibilities for Yoko Ono or Brainticket style freakouts, this is definitely NOT your father's lounge music, either! Before titling it Miracles, they almost called it Jungle Rock, and it was definitely an attempt to introduce Yma Sumac to a new generation of fans. In this effort to be hip and happening, the inventive orchestration and contemporary rock band backing (fuzz guitars, swirling organ) come close to being as wild as her voice.
Interestingly, this album found the "Queen Of Exotica" once again teamed up with the "King" - Les Baxter, her collaborator on Voice Of The Xtabay! He was brought in to compose and conduct, and is responsible for writing all the tracks here but one (a cover of popular Peruvian folk number "El Condor Pasa").
These songs, with titles like "Medicine Man", "Flame Tree", "Azure Sands", "Zebra", and "Magenta Mountain", certainly showcase Sumac's remarkable voice - soaring altissimo, deep growling, startling squeaking, everything in between - as accompanied by swinging, fuzzed out psych rock grooves and otherworldly arrangements. Downright "lysergic" as some would have it. Others might call the combination corny... some of this sounds like the most unhinged nightclub act ever.
Leadoff track "Remember" sets the pace, Sumac's band ready to rumble, guitars crashing in like maybe she's gonna start singing "Jumping Jack Flash" but her vocals are all wordless whoops and warble (like a human Thermin) and ludicrous, Muppet-like grumble. Crazy stuff. This even reminds us a bit of the sort of Third World garage psych now being comped on such recent collections as Thai? Dai! and The Sound Of Siam, an interesting synchronicity. Who was unintentionally inspiring who?
It's hard to know what Yma Sumac purists will think about this over the top, modish Incan instro-hipster act. (Are there Yma Sumac purists?) This album's certainly a strange one, all right, utter extreme eccentric exotica. Exotic for the "jungle" themes, and all the more exotic now for its dated psychsploitation angle.
Brought to us by one of our favorite reissue labels, Australia's Omni Recording Corporation, who make sure provide extensive, fascinating liner notes (touching on this album's kinship with other albums of "psychedelic opportunism" of the era like Muddy Waters' Electric Mud, Bo Diddley's Black Gladiator, and Chubby Checker's New Revelation) in the colorfully illustrated cd booklet. Also, three previously unreleased bonus tracks have been added to the disc!
We knew after their breathtaking collaboration with Bill Wells last year that Tape were really reaching a zenith in their career. With a back catalog rich with so many beautiful records, it's so nice to see them continue to reveal subtle shifts in their sound and sonic scope. Revelations flows with such melancholic grace. Instrumental songs that are filled with rich tones and warm melody, taking you to some perfect place, evoking that feeling of staring out the window on a long drive, late at night when there is nothing left to say to the person in the seat beside you.
Other bands that have tried to create a sound like this end up falling so short, coming off as nothing more then post rock band with more moody intentions, but lacking the means or depth to make something really substantial. Tape exist on a totally different level, absolute masters of their craft. Nothing ever feels forced or contrived in their songs. There is an integrity in their compositions that allows you to sway back and forth and get lost in swirls of musical memory and long lost images of other times and places... An utterly gorgeous record.
Another monthly installment of this venerable UK extreme metal magazine is here... this issue they've got Ghost, Graveyard, Kylesa, Darkest Hour, Moonsorrow, Paradise Lost, Autopsy, Assaulter, Arch Enemy, Protest The Hero, Altar Of Plagues, Dornenreich, Fen (those last three part of a "Post-Black Metal Spotlight"), and, on the cover, those chart topping Vikings, Amon Amarth. Plus loads more, including the usual ton o' reviews, bonus free guitar mag Sick Sounds (feat. Children Of Bodom), and bonus free cd sampler stuck to the cover, which we just spun here in the store, enjoying the new tracks from Cruachan, 40 Watt Sun (ex-Warning), and Bullet, among others.
We highlighted the Lion Productions reissue of Nature, the (until now) sole album from way-cool, keyboard-heavy, progged-out krautrock obscurities Tetragon, just a few weeks ago, and now here's ANOTHER, entirely unreleased album from the same band unearthed by krautrock specialists Garden Of Delights! If anything, this one's even more badass. Recorded live in the studio towards the end of 1971 (just a few months after Nature came out), these five tracks here meant for release on LP at the time, but that never happened, the efforts of Tetragon's four very talented musicians never getting the exposure they deserved back in they day (heck even the album that they did manage to get released was done in a VERY small pressing). Well it was 1971, so record buyers were presumably a bit overwhelmed. Still, Nature and now Stretch are worthy of being part of the class of '71, a year we consider one of the best ever in the history of recorded music - particularly of the psych/prog/kraut variety.
Stretch is all-instrumental, the band members just goin' off, doin' their thing, which was virtuoso, jazz-fusion inflected prog influenced by Miles Davis, The Nice and ELP, various Canterbury bands... and especially here, British jazz-rock organist Brian Auger. There's lots of solo action, as well as much precision ensemble playing. With wild widdly Hammond organ jamming, acid rock fuzz guitar, a heavy backbeat, and tons of technical chops, this simply cooks.
Of the 5 tracks on Stretch, which, um, stretch over 43 minutes, Tetragon do two covers: "Listen Here" by Eddie Harris and "Dragon Song" by John McLaughlin. Though perhaps as far as Tetragon were concerned, they were Brian Auger covers, 'cause their hero had previously done both of these songs on albums of his own, and Tetragon were inspired by his arrangements. The Eddie Harris one in particular is super funky but fuzzed, a heavy groove with drum solo breakdown, well actually everybody gets a solo. Of the three originals, "Snowstorm" is actually smokin' hot, "The Light" a laidback wah'd out groove, and "Hovering Stones" the most proggy and changeable, ranging from frantic keyboard runs in lockstep with martial drumming to more blissed-out solo sections. If you liked that Supersister reissue we recently highlighted, we'd imagine you'd be into this too. Likewise of course if you dug the other, original Tetragon disc!
Garden Of Delights reissue cds are even more exhaustive than Lion's, this includes uber-detailed liner notes in both English and German, plus vintage photos, and even the cover art from every single recording that the members of Tetragon were ever later associated with, including jazz-rockers Passport and folksters Falkenstein.
Hard to believe it's been nearly a decade since we first heard Timesbold, and come to think of it, it's been almost as long since we've heard any new recordings from these guys. We originally discovered them, when aQ fave Greg Weeks was performing in town, and the opening act was none other than Timesbold, whose sound was a dizzying hybrid of mournful dark country dirgery, lush experimental pop, and a certain classic country rock vibe. We compared them to Palace, Songs:Ohia, Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Neil Young and the Band. And somehow these guys did channel all of those, into something entirely their own.
This record is not new, it's from 2008, and we can't tell when it was recorded, could be even older, and heck, we're not even sure if these guys are still a band, but what we do know, is it's so good to hear them again, and these songs take up right where their self titled record on Blue Sanct left off.
Lush instrumentation, banjo, organs, big guitars, slippery slide, moaning cellos, crystalline harmonics, urgent steel string strum, the drums slipping from shuffle to pound and back again, the sound warm and lush, twangy and surprisingly rocking, a darkened country drift melded to an apocalyptic swamp folk, the vocals super distinctive, emotional and heartfelt, very reminiscent of Will Oldham and Jason Molina (of Songs:Ohia), fragile, often on the verge of cracking, yet still powerful, the songs smolder and brood, occasionally introspective and minimal, but also occasionally explosive and intense, the songs rife with subtle hooks, all the hallmarks of classic country folk, but wreathed in experimental tendencies, and a wide reaching sonic palette. It's a shame these guys aren't more well known, these songs, all of their records, this is most definitely the kind of thing that would inspire some serious obsessiveness in fans of Palace, Souled American, 16 Horsepower, Woven Hand, Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, Munly, the Decemberists, Low Anthem, Sparklehorse, Giant Sand and other purveyors of dark twang...
Really fantastic!
Ever hear of the TRMRS? Neither had we. Not until a couple scruffy looking dudes came into the store and dropped off a copy of their new cd-r, a hand painted, home made little gem, that definitely had us wondering what might be inside. And shit, if what's inside doesn't make these guys the next big thing, then we'd be pretty goddamn surprised.
Think Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Sic Alps, Waaves, Surfer Blood, Soft Pack, that sort of jangly, super hooky, slightly surfy psychedelic garage rock, and while there is definitely a glut of folks going for that sound, these guys do it way better than most, and totally make it their own. Self described as 'trash pop', that's pretty much what this sounds like, trashy and poppy, and loose and super rocking, the guitars are crunchy and jangly, the vocals a melodic yelp, the drums propulsive, reverb all over the place, and the songs are hooky as hell. More garagey and raw, than purely poppy, but that raw garage is infused with plenty of poppiness, reminding us a bit of a slightly more song oriented Coachwhips, you can definitely tell that live these guys probably have the crowd bouncing and sweaty and losing their shit. And it's easy to hear why.
Definitely a new favorite. And we'd be shocked if these guys didn't get snapped up by Mexican Summer or In The Red or Woodsist or even Captured Tracks or Woven Bones, and if any of that stuff is your jam, then these guys just might be your new favorite band.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Each one in a super fancy hand painted, silkscreened, collaged cover, every one unique, and all hand numbered!
We knew we could count on Numero Group for an especially cool Record Store Day release. This year, it's another volume in Numero's Local Customs series. They delved into the vaults of Cleveland, Ohio pressing plant Boddie, a place where local acts took their tunes for private pressings from the late '60s through the mid '80s, and turned up some amazing gems indeed. And the even better news is, that while it's a limited release, we still have a few!
The rare tracks here, by such unknown artists as Jus' Us, Los Nombres, Slippery When Wet (not a Bon Jovi cover band!), Bill Spoon, The Defaulters, The Harmonics, The Donations, Love For Dollars And Cents, Hot Chocolate, The Basement, Wicked Lester (not, we're pretty sure, the KISS-related Wicked Lester), and more, tend mostly towards steamy soul, raw funk and smooth disco, yet there's lots of surprises. Wicked Lester's fuzzed out, uptempo garage grunt is one of those highlights for us, along with Russell Potter's solo steel string guitar stylings, in a Fahey/Takoma mode. The indie pop plod of Donald Eckert's druggily dismal "Play It Slow" would be another one. Oh, and the dour electronic new wave beats of Berlin West. But never fear, there's plenty of sunshiney soul to pep things up throughout. In fact, even a song called "Soul and Sunshine" by the wonderfully named Harvey & The Phenomenals.
Rather extravagantly, Numero released this on not only cd and lp, but also cassette tape! Each differently, and appropriately titled (Burned, Pressed, and Dubbed, respectively). You get 17 tracks on the cd and cassette, 18 on the double vinyl, which also comes with a 18"x24" poster. We have only a tiny handful of the cassettes left, and not really that many more of the other two formats, either...
"All formats have the same liner notes and discography (font sizes vary)." Those liner notes are quite interesting, all about Boddie though, not the artists. And the discography (everything Boddie ever pressed/burned/dubbed, pretty much) is very, very long.
We knew we could count on Numero Group for an especially cool Record Store Day release. This year, it's another volume in Numero's Local Customs series. They delved into the vaults of Cleveland, Ohio pressing plant Boddie, a place where local acts took their tunes for private pressings from the late '60s through the mid '80s, and turned up some amazing gems indeed. And the even better news is, that while it's a limited release, we still have a few!
The rare tracks here, by such unknown artists as Jus' Us, Los Nombres, Slippery When Wet (not a Bon Jovi cover band!), Bill Spoon, The Defaulters, The Harmonics, The Donations, Love For Dollars And Cents, Hot Chocolate, The Basement, Wicked Lester (not, we're pretty sure, the KISS-related Wicked Lester), and more, tend mostly towards steamy soul, raw funk and smooth disco, yet there's lots of surprises. Wicked Lester's fuzzed out, uptempo garage grunt is one of those highlights for us, along with Russell Potter's solo steel string guitar stylings, in a Fahey/Takoma mode. The indie pop plod of Donald Eckert's druggily dismal "Play It Slow" would be another one. Oh, and the dour electronic new wave beats of Berlin West. But never fear, there's plenty of sunshiney soul to pep things up throughout. In fact, even a song called "Soul and Sunshine" by the wonderfully named Harvey & The Phenomenals.
Rather extravagantly, Numero released this on not only cd and lp, but also cassette tape! Each differently, and appropriately titled (Burned, Pressed, and Dubbed, respectively). You get 17 tracks on the cd and cassette, 18 on the double vinyl, which also comes with a 18"x24" poster. We have only a tiny handful of the cassettes left, and not really that many more of the other two formats, either...
"All formats have the same liner notes and discography (font sizes vary)." Those liner notes are quite interesting, all about Boddie though, not the artists. And the discography (everything Boddie ever pressed/burned/dubbed, pretty much) is very, very long.
We knew we could count on Numero Group for an especially cool Record Store Day release. This year, it's another volume in Numero's Local Customs series. They delved into the vaults of Cleveland, Ohio pressing plant Boddie, a place where local acts took their tunes for private pressings from the late '60s through the mid '80s, and turned up some amazing gems indeed. And the even better news is, that while it's a limited release, we still have a few!
The rare tracks here, by such unknown artists as Jus' Us, Los Nombres, Slippery When Wet (not a Bon Jovi cover band!), Bill Spoon, The Defaulters, The Harmonics, The Donations, Love For Dollars And Cents, Hot Chocolate, The Basement, Wicked Lester (not, we're pretty sure, the KISS-related Wicked Lester), and more, tend mostly towards steamy soul, raw funk and smooth disco, yet there's lots of surprises. Wicked Lester's fuzzed out, uptempo garage grunt is one of those highlights for us, along with Russell Potter's solo steel string guitar stylings, in a Fahey/Takoma mode. The indie pop plod of Donald Eckert's druggily dismal "Play It Slow" would be another one. Oh, and the dour electronic new wave beats of Berlin West. But never fear, there's plenty of sunshiney soul to pep things up throughout. In fact, even a song called "Soul and Sunshine" by the wonderfully named Harvey & The Phenomenals.
Rather extravagantly, Numero released this on not only cd and lp, but also cassette tape! Each differently, and appropriately titled (Burned, Pressed, and Dubbed, respectively). You get 17 tracks on the cd and cassette, 18 on the double vinyl, which also comes with a 18"x24" poster. We have only a tiny handful of the cassettes left, and not really that many more of the other two formats, either...
"All formats have the same liner notes and discography (font sizes vary)." Those liner notes are quite interesting, all about Boddie though, not the artists. And the discography (everything Boddie ever pressed/burned/dubbed, pretty much) is very, very long.
We've ALWAYS loved Guided By Voices. And say what you will about the hundreds, perhaps thousands of GBV songs, but on average, it's WAY more hit than miss, with many GBV records consisting of pretty much NOTHING BUT hits, like Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes. We'd actually been re-obsessing over GBV lately when whattayaknow, in honor of this year's Record Store Day came this GBV tribute compilation.
We've very skeptical of tributes, one famous band signs on and then the label fills out the record with a bunch of never-heard-of's most of which are never-really-wanted-to-hear's in the first place. And no band seems to have suffered that indignity more than GBV, with so many terrible terrible tributes. So hopes were not high for this one, until we saw some of the bands: Flaming Lips, Thurston Moore, Kelly Deal of the Breeders, Superdrag, Crooked Fingers, David Kilgour, Blitzen Trapper, Lou Barlow, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and more! And almost all of the tracks here are great, lots of them dramatically different reinterpretations, none more so that La Sera's divine version of "Watch me Jumpstart", which transforms the original into a hazy, washed out, organ drenched, half speed, girl group ballad, lush vocal harmonies, the whole thing driven by a warm whirring church organ, everything wreathed in soft focus reverb, the drums minimal but strangely powerful, the chorus a druggy crawl. So good. EASILY worth the price of admission for just that one track. But the Flaming Lips version o "Smothered In Hugs" is pretty great, as is Elf Power's "man Called Aerodynamics", and Thurston Moore's dirgey noise rock take on "Stabbing A Star", and Crooked Fingers' mostly true-to-the-original "Tractor Rape Chain", and even the uknown new-to-us outfits here step up and do GBV proud.
This was a super limited Record Store Day release, and we only have a handful left, so grab one fast before they're gone. (We also have ONE copy on vinyl, if you want it just ask, but be quick, and good luck!)
As much as we dug Daft Punk's Tron soundtrack, and we did, this remix collection seems to be directed at all the haters who lamented the lack of Daft Punk style dance music on said soundtrack, so in lieu of the more appropriately cinematic sounds found there, here you'll find just what everyone was hoping for, big pounding block rocking beats, fat fuzzed out synths, wild sci fi squiggles, huge thick swaths of speaker rattling low end, glimmering future disco melded to various strains of modern dance music, DP's original sounds cranked and blown out and turned into the sort of dancefloor bliss that fans of Daft Punk / Justice / Chemical Brothers / Basement Jaxx go nuts for.
And we're right there with you. We were sold a minute into the first track. "Derezzed" was already one of the few Daft Punk songs on the Tron soundtrack that sounded like Daft Punk, but here, Glitch Mob take the original and make it even more, slowing it down, the bass thick and dense, the beat more dubsteppy, the sound crunchy and explosive and loud and funky and in its own way HEAVY. Then there's the M83 track, that sounds exactly like what you might think M83 and Daft Punk would sound like together, the vibe soaring and eighties, falsetto vox over epic buzzing synths and swirling futuristic ambience, it may be on a Daft Punk remix record, but it would sound right at home on a M83 record proper.
And so it goes. From house to trance, dubstep to techno, swirly spaced out ambience to groovy low slung futurefunk, lots of names you know: Crystal Method, Moby, Photek (!), Paul Oakenfold, and plenty more you don't: Pretty Lights, Japanese Popstars, Kaskade, Teddybears, not to mention the awesomely named Com Truise, these jams pretty much all anyone into any of the above mentioned folks could ask for...
Another super limited Record Store Day release, this one seemed so 'made-for-aQ' we got as many as we could, which is a bunch, but we're guessing with a lineup like this, these will be gone in a flash. What's the lineup you ask? Well, we figured a list of the bands would be all it would take to get most of you flipping out. It definitely worked for us. UK space rockers and past aQ Record Of The Week honorees The Heads, UK psychedelic space rockers and also past aQ Record Of The Weekers Mugstar, local space rock faves Carlton Melton, and another band we have never heard called Koolaid, or maybe Koolaid (Alien Ballroom). Sold yet?
The Heads here appear as Rituals Performed The Heads And Big Naturals, not sure if they're taking the piss or if they joined up with some other outfit, but holy shit is their nearly side long track a mindblower. A dense blast of psychedelic noise gives way to a more dreamy drifty spacekraut, before transforming into a chugging churning pound, that quickly flips backwards, and suddenly the whole track is a fantastically hypnotic arrangement of backwards swoops and fffwwwt's, before exploding back into another blast of stomping heaviness, laced with all manner of warped turntable noise, only making everything that much more tripped out.
Mugstar finish off the side with a brief blast of almost poppy heaviness. Still Hawkwindy but more garage-y and Stooges-y, with some seriously unhinged vox and a cool start/stop effects heavy chorus.
The first half of the B side finds SF sonic explorers Carlton Melton unfurling another smoldering cloud of soft psychedelia, blissed out, free form and abstract, loose and meandery, thick clouds of soaring guitars al over a shuffling hynotic and motorik beat. And finally, Koolaid finish things off, with the weirdest of the bunch, groovy, and almost funky, thick steel string strum, all wreathed in psychedelic guitar noise, laced with some weird samples, drug related of course, and a riff that is a dead ringer for the Knight Rider theme, in fact, the band seem to borrow themes from other songs and transform them into something spacier, there were a few other bits that sounded familiar, all wound into a sound noisy and weirdly tripped out.
So cool. And SO LIMITED. 350 COPIES WORLDWIDE. We have a bunch, but these are the last copies we'll ever have. No art, just green labeled lps housed in lime green 12" style sleeves.
Halifax may be Canadian ground zero for classic pop music (Eric's Trip, Sloan, Super Friendz, Thrush Hermit, Hardship Post, etc.) but like any city, there's a dark side of town, and if said dark side was in need of the perfect soundtrack, it might come from these grim industrial metal blackdrone heavies. Vennt are a power trio consisting of bass, drums and electronics, their sound is a doom drenched slo-mo creep, the bass unfurling massive tarpit riffs, the drums a Neanderthal pound, the two locked into a lumbering plod, while all around electronics swirl and screech, the sound very reminiscent in fact of big time aQ faves Geronimo, albeit a bit less mathy and a lot more sludge-y. The vibe is also a little shoegazey, with ethereal female vox buried in the mix, that is until the sound erupts into virulent gouts of doomdirge power violence and power electronics, the vocals transformed into dueling shrieks and bellows, while the drums crush and the bass flattens, but once the vocals drift off, the song slips back into a more meditative slab of blackened dirgery, mesmerizing and hypnotic.
And so it goes, each song an abject crawl through clouds of blackened buzz, the bass detuned and superdistorted, the vocals doused in effects and swirling around that main lurching riff, the sound seasawing back and forth between, speaker shredding fury, and low slung electronics laced blackbuzz dirge.
A stunning slab of doomsludge power electronics/violence for worshippers of the slow and low, along with similarly inclined noisemakers like Bastard Noise, Geronimo, Moss, Bunkur, Monarch, Wicked King Wicker, Whitehorse, The Body, Ultraphallus, Thou, Dead Peni, Corrupted and the rest...
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES, each one hand numbered, housed in gorgeous screen printed metallic ink sleeves.
When we reviewed the last record from fucked up noise rock weirdos Violent Students, here's how we summed them up:
Dirty, filthy, scummy, sludgy, noisy, fractured, fucked up, damaged, demented, crusty, sloppy, shitty, sweaty, punk as fuck, fuzzy, freaked out, warped, doomy, downtuned, plodding repetitive, caveman gar(b)age scuzz-rock weirdness. And very little has changed since. This new record, if anything, is even more spectacularly shitty sounding, impossibly lo-fi, a crushing, crumbling avalanche of crust and filth and sonic grime. We love this band so much, that we're desperately afraid it's all a put on. Like it's not possible for a band to be this naturally demented and inspired, for a band to create a record like this by happenstance. We tend to think it must be a noise rock prank like Faxed Head, a bunch of super talented musicians, slumming, purposefully creating utter depraved sonic sickness. But we hold on to the hope that these guys are for real. That they live in some fucked up squat in some nowhere town, and rock out in their own filth, busted amps and out of tuned guitars, the mic plugged into the shitty stereo, the floor covered in beer bottles and broken glass and used condoms, al the windows busted, and the neighbors desperately afraid to call the cops, cuz these guys are UNHINGED.
Equal parts vintage Butthole Surfers, Rusted Shut, Black Mayonnaise, Liquorball, the guitars not so much riffing as spewing gouts of buzz and howl and squeal, the drums in a constant state of being hurled down the stairs, a blown out cacophony, and the vocals, a dizzying effects drenched caterwaul, malfunctioning delay and reverb and echo, all every howl and hoot and bellow exploded into a barrage of swirling tripped out abstract noise, the recording impossibly lo-fi too, the sound on the verge of crumbling to pieces, the loud parts clipping constantly, making everything even more muddy and murky, and then there's the random sampled audience applause throughout. For all its primitive amateurism, it's also sort of next level, high concept, the final track, "A Handy Magician", nearly 18 minutes long, is barely a chunky noise rock dirge, instead it sounds like some weird mix of This Heat and No Neck Blues Band, and accidental art rock, swaddled in black smears of noisy, and thick swaths of sonic filth. These guys, whoever they are, have created some seriously inspired, and fantastically fucked up and fractured avant minimal noise rock whatthefuck.
Which needless to say, means this is so entirely and utterly recommended. Includes a download coupon AND a poster!
Girls, girls, girls! The last few years has been filled with both bands with the name 'girls' in their moniker, as well as bands heavily influenced by girl groups and infusing it into a lo-fi garage rock sound. Vivian Girls were one of the leaders of this craze, and they still sound just as great, even amidst the legions of similar sounding groups that have popped up in the last couple years. Share The Joy finds the Girls shredding and rocking just about as hard as they ever have, while still finding moments for full on pop glory. While they have always been sonically aligned with '60s girl groups, we actually hear a lot of '80s and '90s pop/punk in this set of songs. Like a way raw and rocking Blondie, or Black Tambourine and Tiger Trap coming together to cover The Runaways. In other words, totally awesome once again!
The first thing you'll notice most likely is the $18 price tag, FOR A 7"!! But it's not just a 7", it's also a thick 7" x 7" art book, filled with super striking full color images, with a glossy cover. It's too bad the price is so steep, cuz even without the artbook, this is a pretty great single. Which finds Wet Hair, formerly Raccoo-oo-oon, taking their previously synthy krautrocky sound in a much more buzzy and garagey direction. And it definitely suits them. Starting off with some carnivalesque lo-fi synth prog, the sound gradually begins to blur and buzz and transform into some hazy tripped out space rock, not all that far removed from Spacemen 3 or Wooden Shjips, the same sort of looped mesmer, and psychedelic trance, shuffling stuttery rhythms, echoey vox, deep and bellowed, a little Suicide thrown into the mix, the whole thing doused in thick washes of noisy buzzy keys, lysergic and seriously mesmerizing.
The other side starts out a bit more electro poppy, cascading melodies, percolating sc-fi FX, a skeletal robotic beat, lilting synths, the vocals laid back and weary, again washed out and druggy and trippy and hypnotically heavy in its own way.
Like we mentioned, comes in a thick 7" sided art book, filled with all sorts of tripped out paintings and collages, that definitely offer a visual analogue to the psychedelic sounds within.
In case you missed it on our Record Store Day "in-between list" last Friday... but these are going fast! At this rate, gone within the week, if not sooner...
Last year - or maybe it was the year before - we told ourselves, hey, Record Store Day is awesome and all, but what would make it even more awesome? Maybe if we had our OWN release for Record Store Day! Something that, then, we could make sure our devoted mailorder customers wouldn't miss out on, also something that we could be absolutely sure we'd have, utterly unique to our store, amidst the chaos and uncertainty of all the other RSD releases.
So, this year, we did it! With the help of our good friends, Brooklyn's psychedelic space rockers extraordinare, you know 'em, you love 'em, White Hills. As those of you who live here in San Francisco may remember, White Hills brought their spaced out sounds to aQuarius for a fantastic instore on October 1st, 2010. Actually, they performed under the somewhat obvious pseudonym Black Valleys ('cause the venue they were playing that same night didn't want them doing another show the same day). In any case, their "Black Valleys" set turned out to be quite a bit different than an "ordinary" White Hills performance, being a drumless, droned-out duo performance specifically tailored to our space, trying (though probably failing!) to keep the volume low enough not to disturb our neighbors... but still hypnotizing us all with their nonetheless heavy sounds. The show was recorded, and it turned out GREAT.
Over a half hour long, the first few minutes of which are filled with shimmering, pretty pulsations and subtle sonic textures, as if this was the White Hills' version of Pop Ambient. It's both mesmeric and miasmic... Eventually waves of grinding fuzz enter the scene, and this slow building sonic juggernaut of throb and drone and drift takes on more massive proportions, propelled by what we can only say are almost ghostly riffs, giving this something of an Earth 2 vibe. We could go on and on, but somehow don't think we need to, since we know what White Hills fans are like (and you're all White Hills fans, right?).
So, digging the recording, White Hills gave us the go-ahead to release it as a special limited edition cd, for Record Store Day this year. And boy are we stoked.
LIMITED TO 300 hand-numbered copies, packaged in slim, dvd-style cases, with cool Op-Art inspired cover graphics by our pal Nathan Berlinguette, printed in black on fancy silvery paper. NOT sold in stores - except for ours!
This sprawling double lp of blissed out space rock psychedelia is being touted as the first 'official' teaming up of these two outfits, but it's definitely at least the second, maybe the now out of print Aquarian Downer cd-r is not being counted as properly official, but having freaked out over that a while back, we already knew these two were a good match. And on this latest collaboration, the two mesh seamlessly, White Hills seeming to let Gnod dial down the intensity and all out rocking, and crank up the shimmery washed out dreaminess, we mentioned Tangerine Dream in our review of the cd-r, and that sound is all over here, but so is Neu!, Wooden Shjips, all sorts of things, but WH and Gnod are clearly space rock masters, and these 4 sidelong tracks only further cement their placement in our personal space rock kraut drone pantheon (what, you don't have one?)!
So for this record, White Hills are a four piece, again featuring Oneida's Kid Millions on drums, and Gnod are a SEVEN piece, so you would think 11 rockers jamming out would be a crazy mess, but nope, these guys are so obviously sonic soulmates, from the first side, a slab of slow groovy krautrock, motorik (multiple drummer-ed?) drumming, smoldering minimal riffage, mantra like vocals, the Neu! / Stereolab vibe here is huge, woozy synths, tangled psychedelic leads, all glistening and sunshiney, never exploding into full bore heaviness, instead, just unwinding lazily and dreamily.
The second side starts off similarly, a super spare spaced out drift, before launching into a muscular Hawkwind sounding jam, all downtuned crunch, caveman pound, swirly psychedelic effects, churning and chugging relentlessly, the rhythm and groove LOCKED in, while the guitars and synths and effects swirl and whirl all around, finally unwinding with a cool muted bit of cinematic drift, haunting ghostlike melodies that almost sound like strings, all in a softly fuzzy dreamlike haze.
Lp 2 begins all rhythmic and almost new agey, cool repetitive melodies, simple and stripped down drumming, all laid over a deep rumbling synth drone, everything washed out and otherworldly. Eventually that gives way to a throbbing fuzzy bassline, matched up with a rock solid rhythm, more effects are applied, as are some wild fragmented super distorted leads, some warped Manzarek style organ, that main groove never faltering, total low slung incendiary psychedelia.
And so like us, you were probably expecting the final side to be the full on blow out we had all been waiting for, a free for all freak out of epic proportions, but instead, the band dial it WAY down, and offer up some super sprawling, ethereal atmospheric space folk driftscape bliss out, all spidery crystalline guitars, barely there hand drums, thick languid basslines, gauzy restrained effects, soft focus finger picked neo-Appalachia, totally dreamlike and mesmerizing, it almost sounds like the Alps covering Hawkwind, converting heart of the sun heaviness into something hushed and pastoral, subtly lysergic and utterly divine. So good.
Incredible packaging too, beautiful and intricate black and white psychedelic artwork, with a whole 'nother layer of tripped out swirls and shapes printed over the other black and white art in clear reflective ink. And VERY VERY LIMITED. We got a bunch, but odds are when these sell out, we won't be able to get more...
Once again, our monthly must read is here.
Particularily interesting this issue, the cover story by Simon Reynolds on the husband and wife team who run the LA label Not Not Fun, responsible for a lot of cool releases from the likes of Sun Araw, Umberto, High Wolf, Pocahaunted, Robedoor, Magic Lantern, Ducktails, LA Vampires, etc.
Also: David Toop delves into "mellow soul", Mute founder Daniel Miller is tested by the Invisible Jukebox, there's a Sao Paulo scene report, "anarchic hiphop" is examined, and plenty more, including the usual slew of reviews, including the new Ulver.
Hard to believe these guys (and gals) are British, cuz the music they make is pretty much a dead ringer for nineties college/indie rock. Which is not a complaint at all, that's a sound we love and miss like crazy, and most of the bands who try it, can sometimes capture the sound, but rarely have the songs to go with it, but Yuck, who are indeed British, and also crazy young, have both, from the keening Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) like vocals, to the super distorted leads a la Dinosaur Jr., to the lo-fi ramshackle sound and impossibly hooky melodies of old Pavement, all woven into something new and simultaneously not that new at all.
"Georgia" here is their big hit, and it's easy to see why, a sort of Swirlies style bit of shoegazey indie pop jangle drift, the guitars warm and fuzzy, the female vox all reverby and murky, the sound distorted and lo-fi, plenty of tambourine, and bop bop boy background vocals, jangly and hooky and so catchy, a total summer jam if there ever was one. But folks who think maybe Yuck were a one trick pony / one hit wonder are in for a serious surprise, as the record opens with a song we think is even better than "Georgia", with its fuzzed out Dinosaur guitars, and melancholy melodies, not to mention some killer super melodic leads. There's also a low slung bass heavy verse, the vocals laid back and slackery, backed up by spidery guitars, and then the chorus, a gorgeously hook filled explosion of slightly twangy sunshiney fuzz pop bliss. "The Wall" is just as good, casting the current garage rock sound of folks like Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall as something much more early nineties college rock, and "Shook Down" is all sun dapped soft focus jangle pop, with acoustic guitars, heartfelt vox and chiming melodies.
The rest of the record plays out much like you'd expect, from the strummy almost Brit pop sounding "Suicide Policeman" to the buzzy distorto pop of "Holing Out", from the moody, hazy almost Mazzy Star sounding "Suck" to the distorto dirge pop of "Rubber", it may play out like a flashback to the good old days, but Yuck definitely make that sound all their own, somehow creating something fresh and new, from a sound we can never get tired of.
So good!
The duo of ZM73 (pronounced Zed Em Seventy-Three) have been making music for nearly two decades, but this is their first recorded output and it has the slow-cooked feeling of something both familiar yet hard to categorize. Utilizing both found media snippets and composed pop structures, the songs of ZM73 fall between industrial collage of early Tones On Tail and Cabaret Voltaire as well as the left-field funk of post-Can Holger Czukay and Art of Noise filtered through an angular sheen of more recent indie rock and electronica tropes. The collage element adds an interesting Burroughs-ian cut-up technique that suggests an underlying narrative of media-saturation and cultural alienation, yet tempered by a warm instrumental playability that draws the listener in deeper.
Another gorgeous and mysterious collection of lo-fi, ritualistic, minimal, otherworldly psychedelia from Asa Osborn, aka Zomes, one time guitarist for legendary Baltimore hypno rockers Lungfish. And like his former bandmate, Daniel Higgs, the repetition and trancelike orchestrations of those Lungfish songs carried over to his new project. Higgs of course blossomed into a strangely inspiring psychedelic shaman, a wandering troubadour, as likely to perform a laughing solo as he is to do a whole set of solo jaw harp, Zomes became similarly shamanistic, with the minimal cyclical heavy rock of his former outfit transformed into something altogether more hushed and mediative, a series of miniature tone poems, simple melodies, spare arrangements, skeletal rhythms, each track, a simple, slow shifting soundscape of warm whirs, and muted thrum, of ethereal shimmer and bleary shuffle, of reverbed celestial drift and slo-mo kraut-drone dirgery, all the tracks woven deftly into a haunting alien songsuite, a hazy soundtrack to outer space drift and innerspace exploration.
Even more than Zomes' debut, Earth Grid manages the impossible task of being both even more simple and sparse, while being more rich and lush, and somehow more polished.
Earth Grid plays almost like a collection of fragments, each a glimpse into the ether, a peek behind the curtain, any of these songs could have been stretched out to sprawling trancelike raga lengths, but the economy in composition and instrumentation extends to song length too, with each impossibly catch sonic shard leaving us wanting more, at least until we're engulfed by the spirit and sound of the next brief bit of repetitive and meditative lumber and drift.
The record begins with "Openings", which is maybe the most 'rock' sounding Zomes track yet, and almost sounds like a Lunfish song slowed down to a crawl, the beat distorted and lumberingly propulsive, while the main melodies wheezes over a thick undulating buzz. "Pilgrim Traveler" is also drenched in buzz and fuzz (as is much of Earth Grid), and again harkens back to Lungfish, a woozy melody drifts over some thick lugubrious riffing (and it's strange what a similar melodic sense Higgs And Osborne have, must be all the years spent in a band together, cuz much of Earth Grid could easily be translated to Higgs' current sound).
"Melody, The Prism" is one of our favorites, a murky muddied beat, buried under some dark dreamy
low end thrum, a creeping, ominous krautrock lumber, but laced with sweet little melodic trills, but then there's "Stark Reality", a similarly gauzy rhythmic sprawl, and "Youth Of The Beast" which is Zomes at its doomiest, but interspersed amidst all this dark energy, there is plenty of light, dreamy, drifty, sun dappled kosmische folk drift, languid tangles of layered soft buzzing melody and lush expanses of blurred fuzz drenched krautdrone shimmer, at times sounding a bit like the cosmic alien folk of Amps For Christ, and at others, more of a sweetly serene, ethereal swirl, all washed out and spectral, and so fantastically dreamy.
Super striking minimal psychedelic cover art, geometric designs in white tape on a black background. The lp version includes a download coupon too...
