We first heard from the un-Google-ably monickered (((o))) via an amazing (and amazingly packaged) cassette released on the Auris Apothecary label, the tape housed in a silkscreened velvet bag, bundled with a chunk of Mexican obsidian, the music on said tape sonically beholden, as the name might suggest, to dronelords SUNNO))), but then again pretty much anyone trafficking in slow, glacial blackdrone dirgery has some tenuous sonic connection to SUNNO))), and of course slo-mo rifflords Earth before them, but as we mentioned in the review of that cassette, this Mexican dronescaper really only uses that tarpit riffery as a jumping off point, and references those bands in spirit, 'cause sonically, (((o))) is more about black ambience, blackened spectral drift, choosing to blur any semblance of riffage into lush layered textures and gristled expanses of undulating hiss and hum. The sprawling 17+ minute opener unfurls like a time lapse film of slow swirling galaxies, the more caustic crush of the opening few minutes giving way to billowing swirls of smeared melody and woozy shimmer, peppered with buried percussion, pulsing from within the murk.
The sound continues to smooth out, growing more and more serene and almost new agey, until all of a sudden, and quite unexpectedly, the track splinters into a weird dubbed out bit of beat driven churn, strangely skittery, almost house-y in fact, the beat drifting on lush swells of soft focus synth, before quickly sinking again into the softly roiling blackness, transforming back into a bleary black sonic smudge...
The rest of the record unfolds as unpredictably as we would have imagined, the second track is a dark bit of somber chamber music, funereal strings moaning forlornly, all darkness and shadow, while the track after that sound like some sort of subterranean field recordings, capturing whatever unknowable mysteries lurk just below the surface, dense, tense drones, thick thrums and muted streaks of keening high end all blurred into a softly heaving, quietly crumbling drone, wrapped around what sounds like running water, or some infernal machinery, mostly adding texture, some sonic grit to the black smears of sound.
The next two tracks delve deeper and deeper, flitting from deeeep black ambience, to crunchy distorted dirge and back again, both tracks laced with mysterious melodies, evoking all manner of dread, very cinematic for sure, a slow build to a soft black cacophony, that slips dreamily into something much more hushed and serene, before the final track, which starts life as a sprawl of hiss and chordal shimmer, peppered with strange sampled voices, like some sort of harrowing Godspeed ambience, only to have the beats return, this time much more driving and prominent, the motorik groove pulsing through clouds of hum and buzz and wreathed in chiming melodies, the whole thing very seventies soundtracky sounding, touching on Goblin and Carpenter, but coming at it from a whole different direction than all those retro synth wranglers. Housed in an oversized 6 panel full color cover, and probably quite limited...
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Brand new full length from this South Carolinian dronelord, a sprawling two track epic of haunting bleak minimalism, each sidelong track an oozing black expanse of layered drift and roiling blackness. A Monstrous Dose Of Poison is in fact of monstrous dose of poisonous sound, the A side a billowing cloud of high end skree and bowed metals, wrapped in effects and blurred into a swirl of deep rumbling thrum, a black ambience that pulse and pulsates, and splinters into stretches of muted crumble and crunch, before again stretching out into cinematic expanses of harrowing blackened atmospheric drifts, finally culminating in a strange coda of sci-fi gurgles and buried barely there percussion.
The flipside offers up a similar soundscape, a sort of second movement, this one a bit more symphonic sounding, the opening a massive keening swell, soaring string-like melodies, the sound darkly majestic, eventually crumbling into more of a roiling blackdrone churn, shot through with more of those soaring high end shimmers, the sound growing ever more dense and blurred, a muted buzz wrapped around buried pulse and muddy abstract rhythms, smeared into nothing more than rhythmic spectral swirls.
LIMITED TO 259 COPIES. Housed in a gorgeous, intensely full color, and ultra creepy, super glossy extra heavy jacket.
A sort of sonic addendum to the Anakrid lp reviewed nearby on this week's list, this finds Anakrid teaming up with another Black Horizons mainstay, Warmth, for a brief bit of droned out mesmer. A lush expanse of thick layered thrum, pulsing beneath a field of glistening high end glimmers and soft swirls of tinkling melody, that low level background hum building ominously to something much more sinister, a blurred black buzz, that swells into soft squalls of cacophonous crunch, before settling back into that deep rumbling drone. The various elements seeming to bleed into each other, becoming a heaving wall of slowly crumbling sounds, streaked with feedback and sine wave tones, and pocked with weird chittering barely there rhythms, eventually blossoming into a cloud of soft black swirls. The flipside plays out like a field recording of some futuristic industrial wasteland, all blurred greys and streaks of smeared hiss, a Wolf Eyes-ian landscape of apocalyptic drones and swirling low end hum, the sound rife with buried melodies and hushed tonal colors, everything infused with a sense of dread, an ominous foreboding in the form of multiple layers of lower register rumbles and blackened drones. Harrowing and haunting, and strangely lovely.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. Nice packaging too, black and red offset printed, metallic green cardstock 4 panel J-card, and silver stickered hi-bias chrome tapes.
A friend of aQ has been travelling / living in China, and recently sent us some records by bands he discovered and dug and thought we would dig too. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the noisepop shitrock duo Pairs, who we've sort of flipped for, and then there's this, a demo from a group called Androsace, who while based in China, actually boast an international membership, with their co-ed ranks made up of musicians from China, as well as Italy and France, and their sound, well, the band actually describe it as 'minority grunge' (not sure whether they're joking or not), but it's maybe not that far off the mark, the music sinewy and yeah a bit grungy, the band's most distinctive feature being the female lead vocals, a sultry, witchy croon, that slips into a fierce raspy and abrasive wail, the guitars usually following suit, getting downright metallic, and yeah, grungy, we're reminded of groups like Dickless, and L7, although the band definitely have some punk rock / garage rock going on. But the grunge thing is undeniable, especially when they whip out the wah wah, and it's like some lost Sub Pop single from the nineties, which as far as we're concerned is most definitely a good thing. We also saw a review online that described them as sounding like a female fronted Motorhead, and while that sounds pretty appealing, not sure it's totally accurate, but once in a while it does come close, it is heavy, and metallic in places, and for sure noisy, and when the band erupt into grinding distorted punk, kick out the metal jams, we can see why they're one of the more hyped underground bands in China...
Packaged in nice homemade screened, folded brown paper sleeves, with all the song titles and other info written on each and every one by hand.
We hadn't paid too much attention to this band, but listening now to this super swank lp version of their second full length, Eras, we're beginning to think we have definitely been missing out.
The record begins with some murky, muddy, washed out psychedelic drone rock, motorik beats, thick clouds of churning chordal distortion, glistening melodies, super shoe gazey, but super dark and blurred as well, but the record soon slips into something more dreamy and twangy, Eastern melodies over a mass of soft swirling drones and minimal percussion, vocals buried in the mix, ghostlike and mysterious, some big booming drums, very druggy and psychedelic, reminds us of Wooden Shjips, or Moon Duo actually, and the whole record sort of weaves back and forth, between weirdly bombastic post industrial shoegaze dirgery, and a more sort of Velvet Underground / Spacemen 3 style psych drone sprawl, but with a little Scenic style atmosphere mixed in. Sound strange, and it is a bit, but the band make it work, a constantly shifting psychedelic rock bliss out / trip out, that should definitely appeal to fans of the current crop of space gazers.
As with all Equation releases, the design and packaging are fantastic, super thick 180 gram vinyl, deluxe full color gatefold jacket, printed inner sleeves, various inserts, LIMITED TO 425 COPIES, each one hand numbered...
'Bout time these guys were back with a follow-up to 2009's great The Weirding. And damn, if San Diego prog rockers Astra don't just blast off from the get-go here, 8-minute instrumental opener "Cocoon" being a galloping space rock hoedown indeed. Hold on to your hats. Then they head right into the album's longest piece, the quarter hour title track. Vintage keyboards are set to stun, Astra channelling some Yes "Heart Of The Sunrise" action here, the epic composition veering from the head noddingly heavy to gently sung and and acoustic-y and back again, or all at the same time, and that's just within the first few minutes.
Next up, "Quake Meat" takes both the rocking out/spacing out to each extreme, while "Drift" is more laid back and aptly named... And so it goes, Astra proving themselves again to be one of the best modern prog bands at doing what sure sounds like ye olde '70s prog, but doing it with just enough heaviosity to fit in on the Metal Blade label. Just check inside the (quite nicely graphically designed) cd booklet to see how authentically '70s these guys look - all the requisite long hair, double necked guitars and other gear... one of the polygon-framed photo montages even features an Old English Sheepdog.
You gotta love prog to get into this, but if you do, this band's chopsy synth laden grooving will take you very happily to your special prog place/space!
Slipcased jewel case packaging, as usual with Metal Blade's Rise Above licensed releases.
2nd Place is the follow ep to the previous Record Of The Week from these SF sci-fi synthprog garage poppers, and while there's nothing quite as freaked out and far out as THAT track from their debut, it is another kick ass collection of super catchy, garage pop new wave that we can't stop listening too. Opener "Get High" sounds like a much more raw and garage rock version of Interpol, the deep crooned vox and the main melody the main culprits, but BC add all sorts of swirling female background vox, and lots more jangle and crunch, and while most of the track is fuzzy garage pop, the chorus is such a killer blast of new wave radness, not to mention the synth melody at the end. This may be only six songs, but one song in and we're already thinking this might be our new favorite record. And thankfully the rest of the record does nothing to change our minds. "Liquid Fiend" is a blown out blast of garage wave jangle and crunch, with hooks galore, and a sound that's distorted and crumbly, but warm and lush at the same time. "Holy Geometry" channels classic power pop through BC's cracked crunch and wild buzz drenched jangle, and "Finken's Lament" might be the weirdest of the bunch, what sounds like programmed drums, stumbling and pounding over swirling synths and buzzing drones and frantic guitar strum and garbled vox, all blurred into a druggy psych-wave blowout. "Manson Eyes" is another slab of synth soaked jangle pop, and finally, "Glass On Your Pillow" finds BC doing their best Oh Sees, at least at fist, with pounding drums, and a big buzzy bluesy garage rock riff, but suddenly the whole song is swallowed up by a thick low end drone, all the sounds saturated and in the red, thos deep crooned vox come in, and it's total gloom pop bliss, with a killer catchy chorus that manages to be impossibly hooky while being about as blown out as possible, a glorious cacophonous hook, that pretty much explains just why we love these guys (and gal) so much.
Includes a download coupon as well.
Whether or not we'll ever see a new full length from this mysterious producer, the arrival of a new single is still cause for anxious excitement. And this one is beautifully sad and heavy, with three long gorgeous tracks.
At 12 minutes on the A side, "Kindred" is laid out like a dystopic symphonic requiem that morphs through a slow-motion roughshodden landscape. Lonely remote vocals spliced and polished into barely discernible words pitter-patter over record crackle, far-off doomy atmospheres and clanging minimal garage rhythms propel forward and then drop out at irregular intervals. On the B side, "Loner" steps it up with arpeggiated synths and an anxious pace with a cinematic car chase theme feel and r&b-ish vocal shadows buried underneath a layer of sonic grit and asphalt that freefalls into a strange haunted ambiance. "Ashtray Wasp" show a bit more light and hope at first. The vocals culled from cell phone recordings give a broader sense of actual song structure with sped up minimalist Phillip Glass-like orchestrations wrapping the song in a dramatically understated fury, eventually disintegrating into an extended oceanic womb of crackling unease. The final salvo turning into a lyrical filigree of piano, cascading vocal swatches and waves of radio static that fades like the night into the stratosphere. Chilling!
Norway's always-on-it Rune Grammofon label seem to have a special penchant for finding "jazz" bands with electric guitars who really can rock, like the recently reviewed Hedvig Mollestad Trio, and the band currently under consideration, the oddly-named Bushman's Revenge, an instrumental bass/drums/guitar (and some vibraphone) trio. This is Rune G's third release by 'em, the follow up to 2010's Jitterbug, which we really liked a lot. And we like this one too!
First off, first off... the opening track is a slightly rambunctious, bass-burbling cover version of the gorgeous "As We Used To Sing" by the late great jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock, from his criminally-out-of-print for years now 1990 masterwork, Ask The Ages! Excellent choice, making for an auspicious beginning to this album. So nice to hear that lovely melody again, as any Sharrock fan will surely agree. Bushman's Revenge bring to it a very lively feel, that's in keeping with the rest of the disc, recorded live in the studio, with few overdubs, and lots of energy. This band is quite electric, let's say, with dense squalls of guitar to the fore (of course, that's why they'd cover Sharrock, and heck last time out they covered Motorhead!), but they also take some serene detours too (even at volume). Among those mellower moments, "John Lennon Was The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" has a title that might sound facetious, but the particularly calm and beautiful music so named seems quite sincere.
Once again, a great "jazz" album for folks who love amped-up, tangled-up rock.
Gatefold lp (with download), or digipaked cd, both with Rune G's usual distinctive Kim Hiorthoy graphics.
Although her introduction into the public eye was trumpeted with the news of her being Carl Newman's long-lost niece, and she was subsequently somewhat saddled with the daunting task of filling the mighty shoes of Neko Case as female vocalist for the New Pornographers, Kathryn Calder has proven time and time again that she is a strong creative force in her own right. And she's not only fully defined her roles in the NPs and her own band (the sadly now defunct) Immaculate Machine, but on the solo stage as well. Bright & Vivid is her sophomore solo album, and such a lovely one it is. Far more lush than any of her previous recordings, she continues to explore and incorporate other instruments into the basic indie pop palette. This time synthesizers get the call, and from the opening track "One Two Three", the affair swoons with a dreamy '80s pop feel. Whereas her 2010 solo debut Are You My Mother was a wistful and poignant and deeply personal work, written and recorded during a two year period when Calder was caring for her terminally ill mother; Bright & Vivid's production was comparatively swift. However, the speed in which it came into being by no means indicates that it was in any way rushed. Each song is at once sweetly easy going and richly detailed. For this release, she enlisted the kind support and fine talents of friends Jon Wurster (of Superchunk and Mountain Goats), drummer Barry Mirochnick and guitarist Paul Rigby (both from Neko Case's band). Despite the autumnal hues of the cover art, the title is far truer to the overall feel. Although we've been a bit tardy in reviewing this (it came out a few months ago). we think now is the perfect time to give it a spin. Its blossoming warm tones are ready to sweep aside the grey winter doldrums and make way for spring!
Cardinal, the duo of Eric Matthews and Richard Davies (of legendary NZ outfit the Moles), only released one record, a self titled album that came out in 1994, and while commercially it didn't make that much of a splash, it become THEE modern orchestral pop record that pretty much set the bar, a collection of songs that owed as much to the classics as it did to the indie rock of the time, dark brooding pop gems driven by strings and horns and gorgeous unlikely vocal harmonies, "You've Lost Me There" from that record still ranks as one of the greatest pop songs ever. And while both Matthews and Davies continued to make records, and some good ones at that, none of those ever approached the sublime majesty of that one record. Which is maybe why the two have reconvened almost two decades later and revived their old partnership. For those of us who spent the nineties obsessed with that record (which is most of us at aQ), and heck, let's be honest, most of the 2000's as well, the prospect of a new Cardinal record had us quivering in anticipation.
And on first listen, opening track "Northern Soul" brings us right back. Lush and lovely, haunting and dreamily jangly, acoustic guitars, chiming major key chords, those strange harmonies that so defined that first record, and Cardinal in general are still present, whether it's weird little falsettos, or that deep throaty croon mixed way in the background, it's really what gives Cardinal it's otherworldly energy. But the music here, remains fantastically rich and evocative, the trumpet, the big strummed acoustic guitar, those vocals. And while a record as good as their debut was probably too much to hope for, the record still holds up pretty well. Replacing the timelessness of their debut with a slightly more modern sheen, and with a much broader sonic palette, expanding beyond symphonic pop, giving some proper indie rock a go here and there, but for the most part, this is a pretty great second chapter in Cardinal's two decades long two album career, and it's one of those records, that definitely blossoms with repeated listens, where the initial thrill of a new Cardinal record, no matter how it sounds, is eventually replaced with a a pure and honest appreciation for this disc of catchy, off kilter, symphonic pop. The fact that it sounds like Cardinal only makes it that much better. Like that first record, WAY recommended pop fans of all stripes, but especially folks who dig the timeless pop sounds of the Zombies, the Beach Boys, (Early) Bee Gees, and more modern practitioners like Neutral Milk Hotel and the Elephant 6 stable, Jellyfish, Belle And Sebastian, Sparklehorse and the like..
aQ Hits is a new collection from beloved SF psychedelic space rock minimalists Carlton Melton, and is our second annual official aQuarius recOrds Record Store Day release. Last year's was a live disc called Black Valleys, a document of a killer aQuarius instore by NY psych rockers White Hills, and that one sold out in a flash. This year's looks to do the same - if you like White Hills, you like Carlton Melton, right?!
It's a super limited (just 300 copies) compact disc, collecting a handful of rare, and now out of print vinyl tracks, from various singles and split lps from the last couple years, including one super extended version.
Let's run through the various tracks... "Bottle Of Heat [Extended Version]", is, as you can probably tell from the title, the aforementioned alternate cut, which takes "Bottle Of Heat", originally released on the 2011 Agitated Records 12" comp I'm So Convoluted!, and offers up the unedited full-sprawl recording, stretching out to more than 19 minutes, thick smoldering clouds of soft focus psychedelia, drifting and blissed out, free form and abstract, a meandering epic of lush chordal swell and shimmery FX drenched swirl, all over a shuffling hypnotic and motorik kraut-psych beat. "Handling Snakes" is the A side from the group's Valley King 7" single, and is a jolt of heavy hypno-blues a la Wooden Shjips, but in the hands of Carlton Melton, somehow even heavier with wailing riffs and pummeling drums.
The next two tracks are from Carlton Melton's split 12" with Empty Shapes, originally released on Mid-To-Late Records in 2010: "Call and Response" is an epic (and originally nearly side-loooong) blowout, beginning with a heavy rumble of monolithic sludge eventually progressing into a slow wave of burnt-out blues riffage a la early Comets on Fire, that churns and steeps into a gnarly brew of molten fuzz. While "Purer", is more cosmic and dreamy, built on a layer of percolating synth drones that give way to a more uplifting space rock jam trajectory, total heart-of-the-sun zoner blissout.
And finally, the last two tracks are from CM's split 12" with Qumran Orphics, also originally released on Mid-To-Late Records, that one in the beginning of 2011. "March Of The Cicadas" is a glorious ten minute slab of psychedelic heaviness, that sounds exactly like the title implies, a slowmotion dirge over martial rhythms with buzzing electronic hisses and stratospheric guitar leads. And things finish off with "Murder Ridge", a noirish Bardo Pond-like spiral of burning sonic embers and sustained decay, a gorgeous hazy stretch of blurred lysergic drift, the perfect final movement, psych-drone comedown.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each one hand numbered, the artwork is printed on metallic silver cardstock, everything housed in a slim dvd style case, only available here!
We hope you've seen Werner Herzog's 3-D documentary film about the incredible 30,000 year old paintings in an equally incredible cave in France, for which is is the soundtrack. If you haven't, well, you should rent it! But it's really too bad if you don't see it in 3-D, unlike a lot of other 3-D movies. For Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, the 3-D isn't so much a gimmick (though Herzog of course has a sense of humor about it) than an important aesthetic choice, rendering the otherworldly, rarely visited underground setting all the more wondrous - and real. Furthermore, the prehistoric paintings that are the subject of the documentary were of course not rendered on flat canvases, but on irregular, rocky, curving cavern walls, and the 3-D helps to capture the sense of movement that the surfaces help give to the ancient artwork. Amazing, magical movie all around, and when we saw it, we certainly noticed the beautiful soundtrack music, thinking, wow, this could almost be something on the Miasmah label, alongside the cinematic soundscapes of Kreng or Jacaszek.
Some time later, we discovered that the soundtrack had been released on cd by the European contemporary jazz and classical label Winter & Winter, known for their unique, fancy packaging as well as the musical quality of their releases (one we always stock is their lovely recording of Teodoro Anzellotti's accordion transcriptions of Satie). So, we ordered this in, and have been meaning to review it ever since, but the thing is, it keeps selling out in the store before we get to list it, without a review on our site or tag or anything - people who saw the Herzog's film, just know how gorgeous the soundtrack music is (though in the context of the movie, it's almost trying too hard, and considering that the visuals are so breathtaking!).
This week, we managed to get enough extra copies in to finally list it for you. Composed by cellist Ernst Reijseger, a Dutch jazz musician, it's a magnificent, moody modern classical score that conveys the same spiritual sense of wonderment the cave and its contents evoke. With graceful and somber strings, droning church organ, some calm piano, and haunting choirs, it's music that's both delicate and weighty at once. Somehow both grand, and intimate. There are passages of liturgical sounding singing, wordless angelic ahhh ahhh ahhhs of male and female voices raised in harmony; also the recurring spiraling motif of Reijseger's sawing, sublime cello solos, set amidst ambient shimmer... Recorded almost entirely in a church in Holland, this music indeed sounds as if emanating from a large, enclosed, and holy space. And it certainly works apart from the film, as we said, it's nice to have it on its own to appreciate, without the 3-D distractions of Herzog's albino alligators (whoops, sorry, that's a spoiler if you haven't yet seen the film). Seriously, so nice.
We reviewed the cd compilation collecting both 12" eps by these Chicago thrashers on the last list, and now we have the second of those eps, the brand new one, in stock on vinyl, Monsters Of The Midwest...
Chicago Thrash Ensemble's first 12" ep was a huge hit around here, and like that first record this 12" offers up more of the same, convincing us that these guys really are the monsters of the Midwest, their sound a seriously shredding retro thrash metallic mayhem that KILLS. Chugging churning riffage, throat shredding vocals, seriously devastating drum damage, and some killer jams. Raw and heavy and a bit punky, their songs rife with classic metal riffage, harmonized guitars, galloping rhythms, hell, we might as well quote bit of our old review cuz not sure we could say it better anyway: "thick dense buzzing riffage, wild pounding drummage, howled vox, some seriously chugging breakdowns, all wound up into epic classic thrash destruction. Any one who has been digging aQ faves Speedwolf should definitely check these guys out, but where Speedwolf was all Motorhead and Venom, these guys are way more Slayer, Exodus and D.R.I. Or something." Did we mention Speedwolf? Cuz these two bands should totally hook up for a tour, maybe with Behold! The Monolith too (also reviewed on last week's list), now that's a tour we could get behind. If anything this new 12" finds CTE sounding way tighter, the songs even catchier, with some downright classic riffs, and the sound, holy shit, the production is massive, making the band sound even more epic and crushing. Not sure what else to say? We love these guys, and you should too. Check out the sound samples. And go see them if you can, these guys must destroy live.
Like the first 12", packaged in cool fold over silk screened sleeves, this one adorned with some stars and stripes, and um, football players?
We always just assumed Clarinette was from New Zealand, probably because our first exposure to this one man soundscaper was via Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label (although before that he had released an lp on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label) but in fact the man behind Clarinette, aka Dan Vallor, comes from right here in the Bay Area. The sound of Clarinette might throw you off as well, as Vallor takes gorgeous layered drifts of mutated field recordings, deftly processed loops and all manner of noise making devices and weaves them into something darkly expansive and hauntingly mysterious. This awesomely titled double cd-r / cassette offers up two sprawling sidelong tracks, the first, uses as its focus, what sound like a field recording of a train (much like the recent Chris Watson record El Tren Fantasma), but here the chugging of the train is blurred and smeared and looped into a blackened expanse of rhythmic thrum, over which foghorn tones moan and bellow, those tones constantly shifting and mutating, occasionally coalescing into almost-melodies, but just as often keening mournfully and then fading out. The whole side is based on this chugging softly churning mesmer, but throughout, Vallor introduces all manner of sonic subtleties, whether it's some krautrock like motorik drumming, some wah-wah-ed chordal swirls or some blackened soft focus shimmers, the whole track remains at a constant low level thrum, sans headphones it's a soothing washed out drone, but closer listening reveals a depth to Vallor's sonic construction that is quite breathtaking.
The second disc/side is much more abstract, with Vallor moving deftly through various drone permutations, starting out with a dense squall of hissing swirl, the sound soon shifts to dizzying echoey shimmer, and then more looped mesmer, the timbre changing in many cases more than the actual sound, slipping from caustic and crunchy, to muddy and murky, to glistening and shimmery, to dense and droney, the noisier parts rife with a sort of unhinged psychedelia, while the quieter parts darkly contemplative, a hushed blurred drift, that more often than not slowly blossoms into something much more intense. The whole track constantly seesawing between the two polarities, dragging the listener along on a harrowing hypnotic sonic journey, that again, benefits greatly from headphones, Vallor's sound world deep and dense and well worth getting lost in.
The packaging on both formats is incredible. The cd-r version comes in a cool silkscreened transparent sleeve, a green vinyl record printed on the front, seemingly to mirror the cassette packaging which is more expensive for a reason, not only is it more limited, but the cassette comes INSIDE ITS OWN WALKMAN STYLE CASSETTE PLAYER, then that cassette player is wrapped in a melted colored vinyl record, warped in a way that makes it act as a sort of stand, and that record is then silkscreened. WOW! The cd-r is limited 50 copies and hand numbered, the tape/tape player/warped record version is also hand numbered, but limited to just SIXTEEN copies!!!!
If you're anything like us, you saw the names of these two bands and immediately added this to your cart. Cuz really, what more do you need to know about either of these bands that you don't already? Anyone into heavy music, who isn't obsessed with either or both of these groups is missing out big time. Both now celebrating their 20 year anniversaries, and commemorating that fact with this split 7", featuring one track from each band, recorded last year. The Converge track is a killer (of course), pairing grinding blasting furious verses with an impossibly melodic / catchy refrain, that's downright poppy. DropDead counter with what they do best, a blasting, thrashing, pounding slab of political hardcore, no frills, howled vox over grinding riffage and pounding drums, furious and frenzied and somehow catchy like crazy. We imagine fans of both or either will absolutely need this, and this also works as a pretty sweet introduction to two of the most important punk rock / hardcore bands of the last two decades! Pressed on blue vinyl, includes a download coupon as well, and guessing it's also probably pretty limited.
Another back room discovery, buried in a dusty corner, obscured by shadows, a box of discs from some mysterious artist called Converstations With The Light, on a Swedish label called Ominous Recordings. Throwing it on, everything made sense, the sound dark and dusty, obscured and shadowy, and yeah, definitely ominous, the only thing that didn't seem to fit was the name, cuz this is about as far from the light as you can get, a grim pitch blackness that oozes malevolence, a haunting, creepy expanse of industrial landscapes and blackdrones, of blurred noise and strange surreal sonic drifts. We eventually discovered that Conversations About The Light is in fact an American soundscaper/noisescaper named Robert Hunter Osgood, and as the title might suggest, A Retrospective is in fact a collection of various tracks, some from splits and demos, some unreleased. And while it may be a compilation, it was, and is our first exposure to Osgood and his Conversations About The Light, and all it took was the opening 15 minute epic, "Death Tree", and we were sold. A haunting cinematic slow build creep, soft shimmers of high end drifting over an abject expanse of muted thrum, and hushed rumbles, it's not really until about halfway through that the sounds actually coalesce into something melodic, the billowing background transformed into a lovely blurred bit of soft focus dreamdrone hum, and then out of nowhere, thick heaving shards of buzzing low end crunch surface and crumble malevolently above the tranquil soundscape below. The sound soon stabilizes, and becomes a buzzing smear of metallic streaks and ghostly overtones, before blossoming into an ominous, industrial dirge, wreathed in static and pulsing squelches, before finishing off with a face melting squall of grinding blown out white noise how. Shit, if this was a single song 15 minute disc, it would still be well worth the price of admission, essential listening for fans of Locrian, Wolf Eyes, Wraiths, Gog, NRIII, Servile Sect, and other practitioners of the sonic black arts, but there's nearly a whole 'nother hour, the sound remaining rooted in industrial / noise / black drone territory, but explores every little twisted corner of said territory, thick rumbling stretches of blown out grey noise, darkly undulating sprawls of hushed minimalism, drearily melodic atmospheres and creeping doomic dirges, chugging almost blackened metallic crush, gorgeous folk flecked black ambience, full on speaker shredding Merzbowic chaos, grim soundtracky soundscapes, field recorded noise experiments, keening raga-like soft-noise drifts and pretty much every strange blackened stop in between.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, long sold out and out of print. We have about a dozen or so and they are absolutely the last copies we'll see!
Longtime readers of the aQ list will definitely remember an Australian duo called Fire Witch, whose records we went nuts for a while back (as did lots of you if we remember correctly), their sound a sort of psychedelic sludge, thick grooves and pounding rhythms, dueling basses, mathy and melodic, but also crushing and HEAVY AS FUCK. So it should come as no surprise that the drummer from Fire Witch is the man behind the kit in Dead, whose sound is not all that far removed from FW, if anything, it's more stripped down, more metallic, more punky, but still the same sort of bass heavy (there's no guitar here either) churn, but where FW got sort of psychedelic, Dead channel that numbskull AmRep style thud rock sound, the bass so distorted it seems to constantly be crumbling into squalls of low end noise, the drums wildly chaotic, the vocals for the most part howled and yelped, but occasionally slipping into a weirdly melodic croon, the band's sound, falling somewhere between the bass and drum heaviness of godheadSilo, and the grinding metallic hypno-punk pound of the late great Karp, and lots of the super rhythmic bass and drum interplay reminds us of NoMeansNo, but all the songs are gloriously blown out and blasted, slipping easily from super progged out metallic grind to stretched out loping post rock mesmer, those might be our favorite bits, when the band locks into long stretches of looped bass-and-drum hypnorock, like on "Prick Rodeo", which might be our favorite track, it's the sort of droned out dirginess that totally pushes our buttons, and then when the bass slips into a higher register and starts playing soaring sort-of-leads, before slipping back into a sludgey bluesy creep, SO great! And the Melvins-y downtuned sludge creep of "Beasts", total slo-mo bliss! And throughout, there's plenty of other weirdness going on, one song that winds down to a part with just drums and whistling (!), another where the drummer yells out over the cacophony asking the bass player for a power chord, and then another, these guys are obviously having a blast, which is obvious on the punkier jams, but on the pounding churning slowburns, these guys conjure up the sort of sonic malevolence, most metal bands would kill for!
Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, packaged in super slick, hand screened, heavy cardstock, 4 panel fold over jackets, each one hand numbered, LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!! Includes a download coupon as well!
We first caught Dead Luke's name on an older Zola Jesus album, back when it was all about the murk, grit and lo-fi griminess of her sound. Wisconsin was home to both artists at the time; but she soon left for Hollywood on a meteoric rise for goth-diva fame, and Dead Luke stayed behind inoculating himself from Midwestern boredom with his spring-reverb saturated, outsider psychedelia. With a name like Dead Luke, you might half expect a suitably depressive lo-fi goth thing (especially with a couple of singles on Sacred Bones along with that former connection to Zola Jesus); but Dead Luke's downer vibe is the result of being a stoner rather than an occultist, with his awesomely lazy psychedelic numbers that channel 13 Floor Elevators through the heavily sedated period of Spacemen 3. Contemporarily speaking, this album plants itself right between the rockabilly minimalism of Dirty Beaches and the shambolic retro-blast of Thee Oh Sees. Dead Luke tangles those archetypal blues chords and strutting basslines with overblown fuzz, lo-fi crunch, and swampy spring-reverb excess, with his songs always devolving out of the verse / chorus structure of the song and into a hypnotic groove rippling with melodic yet droned-out organs, as a nod to the Perfect Prescription era bleariness from Spacemen 3. He even does an old Bo Diddley number in "I'm A Man," albeit all mumbled and narcotized. "Paranoia Is A Flower Of The Mind" must be an ode to the side effects of altered states, even as the song is a sprawling, ramshackle number of drugged out American psychedelia. Yeah, it's that good. No download code, though.
This record has been floating around for a while now, in various permutations, tapes, downloads, and now finally an lp, and a cassette again, maybe in anticipation of Death Grips' Epic label debut which is slated to drop later this month. And if you've yet to hear Death Grips, you might be a little surprised that they got snapped up by a major, cuz this is some fierce, grim, mean sounding shit. This Sacramento crew specializes in a twisted hybrid of hip hop and experimental electronics, the sound a dizzying assemblage of buzzing metal guitars, skittery programmed beats, bizarre samples, fractured glitched out buzz, twisted loops, seriously raw and lo-fi, but at the same time urgent and intense and fucking far out and super original.
The vocals are fierce and furious, not so much just rapped as bellowed, and howled, which suits the heavy sounds in the background. While much of the drumming is programmed, the drummer in Death Grips is none other than Hella's Zach Hill, but don't be expecting much of that furious Lightning Bolt style frantic drumming, this is after all a hip hop record, so most of the beats are spare and stretched out, as much about their tone and timbre as the rhythms themselves. Opener "Beware" is about as close to perfect as the troublesome hybridization of hip hop and metal has ever gotten, with big chiming distorted chords, an epic almost rock song arrangement, skittery rhythms, and DG mainman Stefan Burnett laying down a fierce flow over the top. "Guillotine" sounds more like a super charged Sensational jam, the beat spare and skittery, the main loop a thick buzzing low end synth, the track laced with little flurries of sci-fi FX, and weird random blasts of psychedelic sound, not to mention a having chain clatter crunch and some motorcycle rev thrum, and the rapping, twisted and deliriously off kilter. "Spread Eagle Cross The Block" is a dizzying assemblage of looped pop song, big sing along verses, stuttery handclap beats, while "Lord Of The Game" is a head spinning shuffle with the main loop made from sliced and diced vocals, there's also Beastie Boys horn bleats, and a Crazy World Of Arthur Brown sample, all tangled up into a crazy rapid fire blast of rhythmic crush. The rest of the record is just as twisted and all over the map, and while we could go song by song and describe each one in turn, it should be obvious by now if this is your cup of seriously spiked tea or not, we'd be surprised if it wasn't, this is the sort of hip hop record that sounds like it was made for aQ, fucked up and funky, heavy and tripped out, groovy and super twisted. For a genre that seems to do less boundary pushing than it should, this is the sort of hip hop record that shakes shit up big time, and suddenly it's not such a surprise that this is getting the big underground buzz AND major label attention it so strangely deserves. Quite possibly our hip hop record of the year, and yeah it came out last year, but it's our favorite this year so far too!
The cover of this month's issue of this must read metal mag heralds the pretty darn killer tour package that Decibel has put together, on the road now: Behemoth, Watain, The Devil's Blood, and In Solitude! Wow, what a lineup. And the local opening acts they've picked are all pretty cool too. It's the first ever Decibel sponsored tour, let's hope they keep doing this. So there's details on that - the San Francisco stop is at Slim's on Monday April 23rd, btw.
Also inside: Corrosion Of Conformity, Meshuggah, Overkill, 3 Inches Of Blood, Aura Noir, Inverloch, Psycroptic, a studio report on the new Baroness, plus plenty more. Oh, and it's about time: Megadeth's Rust In Peace gets the Decibel Hall Of Fame induction treatment this issue!
The usual funny columns by John Darnielle et. al. are also funny as usual, especially J. Bennett's only tangentially metal related tale of being rear-ended by Russell Brand.
Heck y'know, even if you don't like metal, you might still enjoy reading this magazine (probably more than listening to some of the bands covered!).
Ah, scenes, waves, movements, trends, genres, we all know rock critics love 'em. We gotta admit we do too, if only 'cause it makes writing our reviews a bit easier sometimes, when you can stick something in a category. To wit, take this thing happening now with all these "female fronted, occult-oriented, rock/metal" bands, one of the most popular examples of such, being Dutch outfit The Devil's Blood. While some of these bands are super sludgey and doomed-out (Wooden Stake, The Wounded Kings) and others hark back to the '70s proto-metal psych scene (Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth), and still others are straight up NWOBHM steel (Christian Mistress), this one, The Devil's Blood, while displaying elements of all the styles just mentioned, is by far the most "classic rock", with almost a '60s vibe, reminding us especially of Heart! Huh, well that's cool 'cause we heart Heart.
One of our friends theorizes that as modern metal has gotten more and more extreme, it's reached a point where, with bands like The Devil's Blood and Ghost, it's gotta go full circle back to completely classic, melodic roots. That's the new extreme! That's his theory, anyway.
And scenes and theories aside, we are digging this new Devil's Blood for sure. Eleven new tracks of their swirling, retro rockin', sweetly Satanic sounds, laced with great guitarwork and graced by THAT VOICE, which will be the deciding factor for most listeners, the soaring singing of "F. The Mouth Of Satan" (yep that's what she calls herself!) being an un-ignorable element, the crucial crux of this band, and either you'll fall under her spell or you won't. If you do, the rest of their witchy wall o' sound will fall in line, the dramatic organ, the urgent rhythms, the powerful production, the catchy choruses...
Heck, but chances are you already have found yourself smitten, as we sold plenty of this album's predecessor The Time Of No Time Evermore, and before that, their debut ep Come, Reap. If you liked those, you'll like this, as The Thousandfold Epicentre builds on their strengths, maybe generating more of a mystic mood than the last one. Their talents are especially on display during this album's tour-de-force finale, the 15 minute ritual of "Feverdance". There the band's balance of melody and menace tips to way outside of pop territory by virtue of sheer eerie epicness alone.
Another friend of ours, who runs a local label that puts out a lot of vinyl reissues (mostly '80s era new wave / electronic / coldwave stuff), was in the store the other day when we were playing this new album by The Devil's Blood. He thought it sounded like a band from the sixties, the vocals anyway, reminding him of acts like The United States Of America, Ultimate Spinach, and probably Jefferson Airplane, stuff like that. And he was quite taken with it, funny 'cause he's a guy who would normally not have been checking out a band with the evil/metal look and name The Devil's Blood has! They're not only for metalheads, that's all we're saying. Even though The Devil's Blood is happily (la-la-la!) serving Satan all the while.
The last record from these long time aQ faves, Ukrainian black metal horde Drudkh, was a polarizing record for sure, one that found the band injecting their sound with much more melody, and a distinct poppiness, pushing them in surprisingly black pop direction, the new sound more akin to something we might have expected from Lifelover or Hypothermia. Plenty of jangle, and again poppy melodies all over the place. Sure there was plenty of buzz and blast, but that poppiness also seemed to supplant the band's folky side was well, which was another big change to contend with. And while some of us still dug the new sound, we had made peace and were ready to bid farewell to the Drudkh of old. But their latest, Eternal Turn Of The Wheel, finds the band once again in classic form, gone is the overt poppiness of Handful of Stars, and in it's place, the soaring majestic blackness of old, the thick crunchy riffage, the howled vokills, the bursts of frenzied blasting buzz, the stretches of haunting folkiness, but most importantly, the mood and atmosphere that only Drudkh can conjure up. The sound shifting easily from dirgey almost doomy crush, to loping folk flecked blackness, to full on blasting black crush, still plenty of melody for sure, but the sort we were more accustomed too, minor key and melancholic, folky and blackened, the sound at times downright pretty, at others mournful and moody, at others fierce and furious and malevolently majestic. Folks who jumped ship with Handful Of Stars, it's time to climb back on board, cuz Eternal Turn Of The Wheel is another classic Drudkh record for sure...
Thee eternal jamming guitar godliness of Earthless is in full effect here, on this now expanded early daze document of this psychedelic power trio's semi-improvised live prowess, where they're at their best, after all, as hopefully you yourself have witnessed. We certainly have, upon many a deafening occasion.
Sonic Prayer Jam was recorded live at The Casbah in Earthless's hometown of San Diego in 2004, originally self-released by the band on cd-r, then as a limited 10" record on Gravity the next year, which we listed back when it came out, noting that guitarist Isaiah Mitchell sure can ably and endlessly peel off the electric acid blues leads, never failing to impress! (Department of understatement, there.)
But, y'know, they couldn't fit the whole show on that 10", which is long out of print anyway, so Earthless initiates will be stoked that they've now put it out again on 12" vinyl, and cd, so you can hear that magical Casbah performance uncut in its entirety. Any fan of the band will want this, and raw and live as it is, it also wouldn't be a bad place to start with them either. Totally captures their heavy cosmic vibes, man!!
The "Sonic Prayer Jam" itself, a lumbering astral rock n' roll voyage that makes the Acid Mothers Temple's usual output seem tame, takes up all of side 1 and most of side 2 on the vinyl with its pounding FX laden onslaught; on the cd, it's also in two parts, 32 minutes and 17 minutes long respectively. And then, after that devastating Hawkwinded headbang, for an encore Earthless unleash a killer cover of "Cherry Red" by one of their inspirations, '70s UK blues-prog heavies The Groundhogs, complete with high pitched vocal holler as per the original, which they do really well, funny since they're otherwise all-instrumental (a studio version of "Cherry Red" also appeared as cd-only bonus track on their Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky release, this is of course a liver and rawer rendition).
So, definitely an improved version of this urgently rockin' Earthless essential, never before on cd either. Regarding the vinyl version, the ones we have are the limited edition colored kind (green, in various shades), while they last.
Hey, cool! A reissue of the third, and we think probably best, album from these hard rockin' krautrockers (krauty hard rockers?), originally released on US label Billingsgate in 1974 (and recorded on the South Side of Chicago, while they were on tour in the States). The band were of course German, but vocalist/guitarist Cliff Jackson was a Brit. So, some internationally-connected krautrock here. It's also krautrock on the proto-metal side of things, for fans of the progressive heaviness of Captain Beyond, Lucifer's Friend, Leaf Hound, Toad, Cargo, and suchlike. And while Epitaph's choogle is not always super dooper heavy, 'cause they have a sweetly melodic popsyke side to 'em too, it's definitely (twin) guitar oriented, the two lead players getting a bit Allmans-y here, also reminding us of Wishbone Ash. Good stuff, often quite mesmerizing, when the guitars get to chiming and intertwinin', as they so often do on tracks like the rollicking, ripping "Tequila Shuffle", the Zep-leaning "Woman", and album-ending nine minute heavy riffing prog workout "Fresh Air".
This reissue is nicely packaged, and features a bunch of previously unreleased bonus tracks: 3 from 1976's 'The Lost Tapes', and 4 live one from a year 2000 reunion concert, including a drum solo!
We had never heard these guys before, but we've been digging this a LOT, another black metal band from Australia (released on the same label as the new Pestilential Shadows, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), their sound definitely beholden to the classic Scandinavian sound, certainly hints of Emperor and Mayhem abound, as well as Marduk and Dark Funeral, that sort of classic black metal, that few bands can pull off, and even fewer with this sort of power and grim black energy, the band spending much of their time chugging and churning instead of blasting, those more midtempo stretches super intense and moody, the riffs gnarled and twisted and a little bit Deathspell-y for sure, but when the band do explode into a blast, it's dense and furious and heavy as fuck, the guitars an insectoid buzz, the drums furious and impossibly fast, the band careening wildly, the sound dissonant and sinister, the balance between blasting raging fury and moody melodic crush near perfect, with hints of classic metal, lots of cool droned out heaviness, but all woven into what is essentially a modern slab of classic black metal. And most definitely a new favorite with the metalheads around here...
Spectrum Spools has been killing it lately with a string of amazing unearthed cosmic electronic artifacts. We raved about the recent Robert Turman Flux reissue from 1981 and now they dig deeper back to 1975 for this little known work of Italian kosmiche from Franco Falsini. We know of Falsini through the amazing seventies space prog synth outfit, Sensations' Fix (please someone reissue their records!!!), but this solo outing originally recorded as a soundtrack for an obscure film was completely unknown to us.
Made through a strange bio-electronic process that had us thinking of Masaki Batoh's recent Brain Pulse Music Machine record, Falsini recorded this album while having his brain activity monitored by a mechanism from the Bio-Electronic Meditation Society. Whenever his brain would produce Alpha/Theta waves, he would commit his music to tape. Alpha waves are generally created when defocusing one's attention, creating an alert relaxation found with meditation. Theta waves are produced with deeper meditation and often in periods of REM dream sleep. Composed in three suites, Cold Nose is a spiralling composition of EMS and Moog washes and floating guitar lines that remind us of krautrock legends Michael Rother and Manuel Gottsching, but with a distinct spaced-out Italian prog feel, especially when Falsini breaks out into stratospheric guitar leads over the organically pulsating synth treatments. Gorgeously cinematic, with constantly shifting and shimmering progressions. Beautifully remastered, anyone into the long form take on vintage psychedelic new age music should snag this while they can. If you dug the spacier psych moments of Italian progsters, Picchio Dal Pozzo, then this will be right up your alley!
Sometimes some good old fashioned 'rock math' is the best way to start a review... Imagine Rhode Island spazz-rock duo Lightning Bolt, via Japanese hyper-prog heavies Ruins, mix in a little Hella, maybe some Crom-Tech and some Flying Luttenbachers, and then filter it all through the cartoon music of Carl Stalling, but don't stop there, this drums/keyboard duo also lace their sprawling drum-synth duels with stretches of gorgeously creepy Carpenter-ish synth soundtrackery, and bizarre samples, sometimes locking into churning sprawls of krautish hypno-rock, and other times exploding into shards of what almost sounds like Venetian Snares style drill & bass. Thankfully, there's more to Fat32 than pointless ADD mathiness, with the songs displaying a surprising knack for melody and groove, and cleverly hiding proper songs amidst all the genre stutter and controlled chaos. That said, this is still the sort of head spinning, ultra acrobatic musicianship that makes Fat32 sound right at home on Web Of Mimicry, alongside outfits like Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, although sonically these guys do tend more toward the metal/punk side of the spectrum. Just check out the sample below for "Hard Drive", which might be the best of the bunch, a dizzying, super hypnotic blast of hyper rhythmic metallic pound, the Lightning Bolt vibe in full effect, but the keyboard gives Fat32 a much more expansive sonic palette, letting the keys somehow supply both the buzzing synth riffage, as well as blasts of 8-bit video game squiggles, all sort of effects and constantly morphing tangled melodies, the sound shifting frenetically from looped metallic mesmer to pounding chugging heaviness and back again. Then there's the epic 17 minute closer, which displays the group's Naked City like mastery of genre hopping, and the same sort of desire to cram it all into one song, and they pull it off, with most of the track pounding mathily, but they pepper it with squalls of psychedelic shimmer, bloopy video game goofiness, Pantera vocal samples (!), lumbering downtuned doominess, cheesy organ grinding polka, wide open stretches of abstract free noise drift, droned out textures and layers, super angular math-punk and plenty more. Fans of any or all of the above mentioned bands will dig for sure...
On the last New Arrivals list we reviewed the recently released, comprehensive career retrospective of legendary Aussie noise rock / post punk minimalists feedtime, all four of their records together with tons of bonus tracks, check out the review of that collection for the full breakdown of just how rad feedtime are, and how essential those records are, and why pretty much anyone into the sort of stuff we champion around here, will very likely be as into feedtime as we are. And it's really not until you ARE as into feedtime as we are, that you'll need to pick this up, a collection of unreleased tracks and demos, recorded in studios, hotel rooms, one track was even recorded in a hole in the ground beneath the floor in a rented house, but all of the tracks here, are the perfect addendum to that Aberrant Years collection, anyone who picked up that boxset and flipped out, and decided they needed more more more, well, this is for you.
As we mentioned in the review of that collection Feedtime are a gloriously minimal concoction of Wire like riffage, thud rock drumming, and gravelly vox, all woven into something impossibly hypnotic, tranced out and rocking, but rocking in a way few others were capable of, some reference points would be the Melvins, Killdozer, Flipper, fellow Aussie bluespunks Kingsnakeroost and noise rock heavies Lubricated Goat, even Nirvana, the Ramones, Mudhoney, but feedtime, for all they had in common with those other bands were their own twisted sonic beast.
The tracks here are culled from sessions for three of the group's four records, there are early demos, some live tracks, that aforementioned hole-in-the-ground, that sorta sounds like it, filthy and dirgy, with some wild caustic howled vox. There's a handful of killer covers, they do the Stones' "Street Fighting Man" and it ends up sounding like the Ramones crossed with Spacemen 3, there's a super distorted version of Fear's "I Don't Care About You", which is way more fierce and fucked up than the original, and a Flipper cover that sounds like a feedtime original, the rest of the tracks offer up variations on feedtime's unique sound, whether it's a sinewy post punk pound, or some blown out gutter blues, or some psychedelic dirgery, it's all fucking incredible, and totally recommended. If you bought the box set, you definitely NEED this, and if you didn't buy the box set yet, well, now's the perfect time to remedy that situation (then you can come back and get this one later!)...
Fair warning, the cd has FIVE extra songs that aren't on the lp version!!!
NOW REISSUED ON VINYL!! Slipcased, gatefold, 180 gram vinyl.
Originally released in 1973, Make Up was the final album (not counting their recent, and unfortunately disappointing, reunion disc) from these '70s Japanese heavy psych rock gods, a gatefold double LP packaged extravagantly in a stitched, brown faux-leather case! (Which this reissue replicates in cardboard slipcase facsimile form!) Despite the fancy packaging, this artifact didn't make Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50, in fact he rather pans it, calling it "useless" and a "disastrous hotchpotch" (it was assembled from recordings from an ill-fated live concert as well as studio demos). However, it must be said that we don't always agree with Mr. Cope. While it may be that Make Up isn't FTB's most essential album, we think any fan will dig it. If it's perhaps a document of the Flower Travellin' Band succumbing to typical '70s dinosaur rock band excess, a la Led Zeppelin (double album, extended soloing, and a '50s rock n' roll cover), that's not necessarily a bad thing! While you need Satori first, your FTB collection will be lacking without this.
Lp one contains six songs, some studio, some live, including the rockin' title track, all of which provide singer Joe Yamanaka (FTB's not-so-secret weapon) with plenty of opportunity to wow us with his distinctive wail. FTB's more mellow, pop side is definitely on display here, with the gentle epic "Look At My Window", the bluesy, balladic "Shadows Of Lost Days", and the sad "Broken Strings" all probably prompting lighter-raising among concert goers. Heavier fare there is too, the aforementioned "Make Up", plus the ornate chug of "Slowly But Surely", and ominous opener "All The Days". We name checked Led Zep, but it's Deep Purple that FTB more likely resemble on this disc, what with the keyboards of guest Nobuhiko Shinohara.
Lo two is where this set gets really indulgent, starting off as it does with a 25 minute live version of "Hiroshima" (only 5:13 in its original version on their previous album, Made In Japan, padded out here to fill the entire album side, with a lengthy drum solo, of which we heartily approve). Heck, "Hiroshima" could go on for hours and hours as far as we're concerned, since it's chock full of the type of slightly sinister, blown-out riffage that today's stoner rockers try their hardest to recreate. In fact, thinking about it, this sounds a hell of a lot like AQ faves Los Natas! That's followed on the flip by another live track, a somewhat incongruous cover of "Blue Suede Shoes", with FTB producer (and former Group Sounds star) Yuya Uchida on vocals. This seems to the sort of thing that turned Cope off from this album, but we've seen footage of early Black Sabbath covering this tune too, so we'll let it slide. And in any event, that roots maneuver is followed by a rendition of FTB's own classic "Satori Pt. 2", ten tribally-rhythmic minutes of sinuous psych with Joe at his piercing best, a hard rock rock n' roll showman as shaman if there ever was one. And the drifting, semi-acoustic, spaced out "After The Concert" that winds things up wordlessly and beautifully can't be the cause of any of Cope's complaints.
In any case, all you proto-metalheads and acid psych loving Japanophiles can decide for yourself, thanks to this new reissue.
Here we have a brand new record from Konstantinos Soublis, better known as Fluxion. The former Basic Channel / Chain Reaction mainstay is known for his crisp sound design and stunning attention to detail, and here he does not disappoint! Traces presents a dark and lush soundworld, where a myriad of texture and color, rhythm and drone meld into something wholly enveloping and hypnotic. When we hear this slab of dub-wise techno we cannot help but picture some brilliantly lit alien all-nighter, where enlightened beings helplessly gyrate in a state of trance-like ecstasy to the careening percussion and keenly developed melodic textures which unfold as the album progresses. The fourth track, "Eruption" has this hazed out, extraterrestrial disco-tech vibe for sure! Classic Chain Reaction delayed out chord sounds are melded with a groovy bass line and some handclaps and 909 rim-clacks, making for a dance floor cut that engages the mind and the ass in equal measure! Every sound within Fluxion's palette seems to be perfectly placed and of utmost necessity, restrained yet totally psychedelic (albeit in the glacial, slow-burn type of way), with enough haunting synth pads and far-out riddims to keep the ear fully engaged throughout. This is absolutely perfect late night vision quest blissout muzik! Dreamy and dark, and hauntingly hallucinogenic! Track two, "No Man Is And Island" features a wonderful unreleased vocal version from the late, great Dennis Brown. Beautiful! Recommended!!!
We were doing some Spring cleaning and discovered a little stash of these tucked away in a shadowy corner of the back room, a 2008 compilation from one of our favorite weirdo black metal hordes, Mexico's Funeral Moon, this compilation gathering up the group's In Communion With Satan ep, previously unreleased, and tacks on two also never before released live jams, recorded in Monterrey, Mexico in 1994.
For those who have yet to discover the twisted blackened glory that is Funereal Moon, just have a gander at what has to be THEE coolest corpsepaint we've seen, the inverted crosses over each eye, the pentagram on the forehead, the weird blackened old man lips, and strange demon veins, it's pretty striking, and was definitely what caught our attention when we first discovered these guys. But if you think the corpsepaint is weird, just wait til you get to the music. Funereal Moon Is Dead starts off with a tripped out intro, all woozy synths, and rumbling demonic vocal gurgles, all very nightmarish and carnivalesque, all set to a heartbeat like pulse, some seriously creeped out ritualistic sonic weirdness, some nightmarish cinematic black ambience, which leads directly into the first proper 'song', tolling bells and weird squiggly synths writhe and wriggle in a twisted tangle over stumbling programmed drum machine, and some creepy female spoken word, it actually sounds more like aQ outsider rock weirdo Fastest, a doomy synth heavy creep, the only signs of 'metal' are the super strange (and dramatically out of place) ultra distorted demonic vokills that surface about halfway through, and growl gutturally over the woozy druggy drift in the background. The final studio track is all crumbling buzzing synth drones, over which a deep vocal croaks and cackles, sounding a lot like aQ faves Ride For Revenge or Will Over Matter. Which is most definitely a good thing.
The actual metal doesn't happen until the live tracks, the sound appropriately lo-fi, the sound still all synthy and swirly, droned out and druggy, but here, the vocals are definitely raspy and black metal, the drums a pounding dirge, the riffs gnarled and downtuned, but the whole first track nearly swallowed up by some awesome thick low end pulsations, that transform any black metal into something much more psychedelic and tripped out. Finally, the record finishes off with a track that ends up sounding more meta than it was meant to, with the crowd sound cacophony almost as loud as the band, the band in full on buzzing black blast mode, but it's blurred into a twisted droned out thrum, that only occasionally transforms into a synth driven creepy black doom lope, and like the first live track, the whole thing seems to be wreathed in another pulsing low end throb. So weird, and so fucking awesome. Like all FM stuff, totally recommended, although very likely too weird/whatthefuck for more middle of the road metalheads...
LIMITED TO 666 COPIES, each one hand numbered, long out of print, we have about a dozen left and once they're gone these are gone for good.
Not one, but TWO new, extremely limited lps from UK psychedelic space rockers GNOD, who we've raved about on past lists, and who we first discovered via a split with NY space rockers White Hills. Gnod would later go on to share a split with another aQ fave, Bong, as well as releasing a clutch of their own records, which had space/psych rock fans around here flipping their lids. This new one is split into two parts, forming a two part set called Chaudelande, the first part spreading three tracks out over two sides, the shortest a little over eight minutes, the longest taking up a whole side at 17+. Where on past records, Gnod did a lit of drifting and spaced out shimmering, the opening track here wastes no time, well, okay, a little time spent spaced out and ethereal, before exploding into some full on space rock stomp, equal parts Hawkwind, the Stooges, heck, even a little Monster Magnet, the drums are massive, pounding away, the guitars thick, and crumbling with distortion, swaggery and spacey and seriously psychedelic, everything wreathed in swirls of effects and swaths of blurred buzz, the vocals a reverbed yelp, the bass thick and slithery, the whole thing on the edge of slipping into full on freakout. Sort of mirroring the sonic shift White Hills displayed on their most recent record. The second track dials it back a bit, drifting into a more Moon Duo-ish territory, that sort of mesmerizingly cyclical propulsive space-kraut, but Gnod mix it up by adding some thick grinding bass buzz, and clouds of constantly shifting FX, not to mention layer upon layer of swirling guitar murk and celestial shimmer, and while it does go through several permutations, at its heart, it's a seriously heady slab of blissed out zoner psych.
But then the sidelong flipside displays a whole different side to Gnod's sound, opening up with some fluttery folk, wreathed in field recordings of bird calls, and all manner of voices, as if it were some hippy commune fireside jam. The sound darkens considerably, a low slung bass line driving some skeletal rhythmic shuffle, the sound hazy and fuzzy and droned out, but peppered with bursts of incendiary guitar noise, wild squalls of psychedelic freakout, wheezing organs, eventually exploding into a pounding noise jam second half, that finds the sound cranked, all the pedals pushed to their limited, the whole thing held together by a raga like buzz, heady and heavy and gloriously noisily spaced out.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, pressed on white vinyl.
Not one, but TWO new, extremely limited lps from UK psychedelic space rockers GNOD, who we've raved about on past lists, and who we first discovered via a split with NY space rockers White Hills. Gnod would later go on to share a split with another aQ fave, Bong, as well as releasing a clutch of their own records, which had space/psych rock fans around here flipping their lids. This new one is split into two parts, forming a two part set called Chaudelande. This, the second record, begins very tranquilly, with some bells and chimes, a fluttering flute, bird song, and folky chanted vocals, all driven by a simple plodding rhythm, very old timey and ritualistic sounding, but then a few minutes in, the song gradually splinters into a murky, pounding punkish churn, that sounds almost industrial, like a space rockier version of Crash Worship, tribal drumming beneath chugging crumblingly distorted riffage, wrapped in kenning synth drones, and pocked with yelped reverby vox, the vibe is very Circle-like, a sort of Neanderthal space-psych hypno-rock, that does eventually transform into something that sounds almost like death rock, or some sort of goth-psych, that shuffling almost disco-y rhythm, deep crooned vocals, slithery basslines, but all nearly obscured by sheets of wah wah-ed guitar noise, pretty goddamn weird, but also one of our favorite Gnod jams yet! The follow up track Entrance, is a similarly minded sprawl of psychedelic hypno-rock. churning, pulsing, pounding, the drumming much busier, but still seriously motorik, the sound growing gradually more intense and heavy and blow out, a sort of space-punk sprawl, and the sort of mesmerizingly tranced out psychedelic space jams that end way too soon, even after 10+ minutes.
And like the first volume, the whole of the second side of volume 2 is taken up by another massive spaced out epic, this one the awesomely titled "Genocider", which begins with a full on "Hey Mickey" style drum beat, which is quickly buried under an avalanche of crumbling riffage and howled echo drenched megaphone vox, the song a mesmerizing space garage stomp, with the guitars growing ever more unhinged, spraying wild tangles of psych-freakout over everything, but then something strange happens, the guitars begin to recede, and the drums begin to become a bit dubby, the timbre shifting, the low end dissipating, with beats careening back and forth, the sound breaking down into a twisted brittle psych dub drum jam, before exploding right back into another stretch of roiling space stomp heaviness, that pounds on relentlessly, until crashing to a halt in a final squall of blown out noise-psych crunch. Awesome.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, pressed on white vinyl.
At last, a nicely done new cd reissue of this renowned early '80s krautrock / proto-techno classic! We've actually never before reviewed E2-E4 because the previous reissues were expensive and kinda hard to come by, though we DID once list a double cd tribute to this record, imported from Japan, featuring tracks by the likes of Rovo, Buffalo Daughter, and Eye from the Boredoms, who took up the entire 2nd disc with his extended mix (wish we still had that, but it's long gone). Better, though, to have this, the actual album that inspired the tribute. Here's some of what we said about it when we reviewed that Japanese tribute disc:
German guitar guru Manuel Gottsching, founder of legendary krautrock pioneers Ash Ra Temple (which morphed into the new-age-ier Ashra), made a few records in the eighties under his own name. E2-E4, recorded in Berlin in 1981, and released in '84, was first and foremost among them. It's rightly hailed as a classic and was a great inspiration for early Detroit techno artists like Derrick May and Carl Craig. The resonant timelessness of E2-E4 has extended beyond many other albums of the era and its influence has continuously popped up in more recent minimalist techno circles - most noticeably within the Cologne scene.
We went on to say that while the reinterpretations on the tribute disc were cool, you should check out the real deal, and now here it is. It's one loooong track, approximately one hour in length, with nine titled and timed subdivisions indicated on the cover (suggestive of a chess match: "Quiet Nervousness", "Queen A Pawn", "Draw"...), that flows and flows and flows, Gottsching's guitar and electronics drifting and dancing beautifully over the continuous, pulsating, subtly-shifting proto-techno beat. It's so very pleasant and airy, also soooo hypnotic and ahead of its time. An hour you won't want to end, once it has lulled you into trance. Listening to this, it's easy to see why the Boredoms' Eye would revere it, and of course those abovementioned Detroit legends too.
This "30th Anniversary" edition comes packaged in a nice embossed miniature lp style sleeve showing off its iconic chess-board cover design.
This is a strange one, definitely not for everybody, but for those of you into freaked out, noisy, goofy, silly and stupid, whatthefuck weirdness, then Guaranteed Katch might hit the spot. Knowing that this stuff was recorded in Ohio with the guy from Sockeye, legendary fucked up lo-fi punk noise weirdos (who have a connection to aQ faves Breathilizor) should tell you enough about these "experimental noise rock" / "jazz core" to know whether to venture in, or run away screaming. Even we're not sure which to recommend. But that in itself, at least around here is its own sort of twisted recommendation.
Stumbling, noisy, chaotic, puerile, punky, jazzy, like the brain damaged little brother of Mr. Bungle, these guys mix and match, sludge and samba, noise and jazz, punk and pop, but this is not the Naked City sort of genre splicing, no, this is more a sort of ADD, kitchen sink, too much weed and a 4-track, channel surfing, ritalin overdosed, neighbor terrorizing, basement lo-fi noise punk jazzbo misfit metal, who-knows-what sort of dizzying DIY damage.
Not sure what else to say, be forewarned: only for the brave, or the ballsy, or the dim witted, preferably all three! And as with all Equation records, this one is packaged pretty sweetly, pressed on thick brown vinyl, with tons of inserts, a fancy full color jacket, bonus tracks not on the original cd releases, and LIMITED TO ONLY 333 COPIES, each one hand numbered.
First time on cd domestically for these two long out of print releases from this hard-hitting space jazz-funk fusion outfit. Originally formed by Herbie Hancock for his classic 1973 Head Hunters breakthrough release (after he broke up his previous band, Sextant), the band didn't break out on their own until 1975's Hancock-produced Survival Of The Fittest with the jazz funk hit, "God Made Me Funky". But The Headhunters had more going for them than just the one funk hit. Comprised of seasoned jazz players: saxman/clarinetist Bennie Maupin (a holdover from the Sextant), bassist Paul Jackson, Jr., drummer Harvey Mason, and percussionist Bill Summers, The Headhunters strength was their atmospheric groove, heavy percussive rhythms and a willingness to take the songs to farout places. While Survival of The Fittest was their best and most well-known album, 1978's Straight From The Gate, their final album before a reunion 20+ years later, is perhaps their most obscure recording. Pushing the funk and fusion elements with an altered lineup there is more of a rushed heavier energy emphasized by guitars, flute, sax and electric piano. This is the kind of record that can easily scare those who bristle at the word "fusion", but there are some deep cuts that make it worth looking into. Either way, having Survival of The Fittest alone is worth the price of admission!
Mari Kalkun is a contemporary Estonian folk singer, who has taken up the task of resurrecting the early 20th century folk songs from her homeland, with many of her lyrics reworked from works by Estonian poets dating back to the 1920s. Kalkun was the artist who introduced us to the haunting singing quartet Utsiotso, a group that shares a similar influence and inspiration, in those selfsame early Estonian folk music traditions. That said, there's quite a lot we don't know about Estonian folk music; but from what she mentions about her own songwriting, Kalkun follows one particular strain - vaibakloppimine. This is a stripped down style for voice, minimal accompaniment, and a distinctive lack of drums, which presumably are prominent or at least present in other Estonian folk musics. In order to even attempt such a style, one has to have decent pipes; and Kalkun certainly has a beautiful voice, one that would bring to mind the empathic delivery of Chan Marshall. But with her minimalist arrangements for guitar, zither, or piano, the most obvious reference to us is Sibylle Baier. That should certainly register as high praise from aQuarius!
"Hommukuvalge" is a downright beautiful number gliding around the simple vocal and guitar melodies that evokes the carefree daydreaminess of a wander through a sun-flecked forest collecting mushrooms and blueberries (quite the common weekend excursion for Estonians!) Kalkun puts the words of Estonian poet Raimond Kolk to music on "Tuulo Kaen" with a blossoming accordion drone, fragile clusters of piano notes, and her full-throated, harmonious voice taking a rather dramatic turn at the chorus. Elsewhere she adopts lyrics from Tove Jansson's Moomin stories, which were allegorical children's books with fantastical creatures akin to a Scandinavian Dr. Seuss. This song "Koduvana Puhendus" eschews the bittersweetness of the rest of the album, with its Germanic oompa rhythm cast in soft focus and Kalkun's cascading trills that sound a lot like John Jacob Niles. All sung in Estonian, mind you; but Kalkun's ability to emote transcends languages, and she's crafted quite a gem of an album.
Spooky 20th century classical stuff here from composer Kang. Performed by an Italian choral ensemble, singing Latin texts (by Giordano Bruno, "Marbod of Rennes"), with help from Mike Patton (voice), Jessika Kenney (voice), and a whole bunch of Italian musicians on guitars, sitar, trumpets, tuba, trombone.
Uh, c'mon, how could this NOT be awesome? Sublime Frequencies never fails us, first off. AND we're already fans of vintage Turkish psych in general, guitarist/vocalist Erkin Koray in particular. So this release, with its excellent eyeballs-shooting-purple-rays-from-space-or-whatever cover painting, was eagerly anticipated at AQ. And yeah it's awesome. As the subtitle says, this consists of singles and rarities circa 1970-'77 from this Middle Eastern psych rock master, founder of "the first underground group of the Orient", a living legend whose career stretches back to the '50s. Rarities? Well, compiler Mark Gergis notes in the liners: "This collection features tracks not found on the many unauthorized Erkin compilations and LP reissues that have emerged in the west over the years." And indeed these eleven tracks were provided to Sublime Frequencies by Koray himself, sourced from his personal vinyl collection! So, listen up, 'cause this is the stuff Erkin wants us to hear, and well, if you're any sort of Turkish psych fan like us, you NEED to hear it. Tracks like "Kendim Ettim Kendim Buldum" and "Hadi Hadi Ordan" are going to make you very happy. Swirling and shimmering, twanging surfy electric saz (or is that oud?), melodic deep droning vocals, bellydancing folk motifs, stirring orchestration, and YES some wild blasts of psychrockguitar distortion, it's the exotic East (lots of East) meets West sort of thing we just love! While some of this is wonderfully moody, a lot of it rocks, all right, ferinstance just crank up "Krallar" (a '75 single from whence that striking cover image comes) with its especially dramatic vocals to match its uptempo urgency.
Digipack cd release for now, with a vinyl version due out in a couple of weeks as well. Is it too much to hope that Sublime Frequencies will get Erkin to undertake a Western tour like labelmate Omar Souleyman, one of these days...?
Katy Goodman, aka La Sera, aka one third of dream pop trio Vivian Girls, returns with here second solo full length, and as we mentioned in our review of the first, the fuzzy, Spector-ish, jangly musical apple doesn't fall far from the VG tree, although Sees The Light definitely takes the sound of the La Sera debut, and hones it even further, sonically more polished and lush, but without losing any of it's raw urgency or DIY charm, but it's quite obvious Goodman is becoming a pop songsmith to be reckoned with, whether she's weaving hazy old timey reverb drenched pop balladry like on opener "Love That's Gone", or kicking out the rambunctious fuzz-pop jams like on "Please Be My Third Eye", wrapping woozy dreamy jangle, and ethereal angelic vox around an almost punkish pound, or offering up hook-heavy Pixies/Breeders style indie rock on the should-be-a-hit "I Can't Keep You In My Mind", with Goodman ditching the reverb, and revealing her surprisingly powerful voice, as well as whipping up the sort of chorus/main hook most other bands would kill for, and crafting a song that sounds so catchy and immediately familiar it's hard to believe it's not a cover.
From there on out, Goodman never lets up, song after song, hook after hook, pretty much every song on Sees The Light is a total mixtape dream pop gem, deftly mixing the soft and fuzzy, with the buzzy and jangly, and at times, even a little bit of the dark and heavy (just check out the dreamy almost doom-pop dirgery of "How Far We've Come Now"), into an irresistible sonic concoction!
Way back in the mid-nineties, we were a bit obsessed with Nashville's Lambchop, their first record I Hope You're Sitting Down still ranks as one of our all time favorites, a fantastic record of dark twangy slo-mo gothic country ballads rife with clever wordplay that at times reminded us quite a bit of occasional Lambchop member, the late great Vic Chesnutt. Lambchop's vocalist and main songwriter Kurt Wagner's distinctive laconic mumbly croon as much a defining part of their sound, as the lush twang flecked, almost orchestral arrangements.
For whatever reason, we kind of lost touch with Lambchop, as their sound grew more soulful and introspective, we of course checked in occasionally, and looking back on past reviews it seems we always welcomed them back with open arms. And the latest, Mr. M looks to be no different. Another gorgeous songsuite, hushed and gently twangy, warm and lush and darkly dreamy, Wagner's vocals sounding as perfect as ever, and the lyrics, well, the first line of the album opener finds Wagner dropping the F-bomb right off the bat, amidst soaring swirling strings and a shuffling almost easy listening jazziness. The rest of the record is not nearly so string laden, but the songs are all pretty fantastic, we'd say it was a return to form, but really, these guys never stopped. Mr. M has definitely rekindled our love of Lambchop (and had us running home to throw on I Hope You're Sitting Down), and while we may not love it as much as those old records, it definitely still hits the spot.
Debut tape from this Colorado crew, headed up by aQ pal Mike, who runs the Sleeping Giant Glossolalia label (responsible for recent lps from Vaz, Bobb Bruno and Shit & Shine) and who also plays in aQ faves Eptileptinomicon. But where Eptileptinomicon was a weirdly rhythmic experimental noise outfit, who trafficked in murky ritualism and kraut-drone soundscaping, Leather Sky is a much more fierce and feral proposition, an ugly, unhinged, hardcore, that owes more to groups like Black Flag, Infest, Void and the like. Neglected Prayer Rug Abomination is a short sharp series of sonic violations, misanthropic musical fury channeled into brief blurry blasts, the guitars angular, the drums tribal one second, a caveman pound the next, the bass a blurred low end ooze, the vocals a howled caterwaul, all but buried in the murk and mire, the sound here super lo-fi, but still dense and heavy and MEAN, recorded in some grim grey bunker, the production perfectly suiting the sound, that sound a pounding, filthy, crusty, chaotic, angular crush like like some unholy union between eighties DC hardcore and nineties Gravity Records post punk. Fuck yeah.
Full length number two from this Chicago sludge metal supergroup, featuring folks from a whole bunch of other aQ metal faves, Nachmystium, Von, Amichi and Indian, and really if you did do some weird metal math, and combined those various bands, you'd probably come out with something like this, a furious, roiling sprawl of blackened sludge metal churn, the riffs, thick and dense and downtuned, the drumming fierce and pummeling, the vocals slipping from intense blackened rasp, to demonic screech, to monstrous death metal bellow, with those vox sometimes spiralling into clouds of psychedelic FX and blurred reverb. But this is definitely not your run of the mill sludge, it's not all creep and slither, instead the band chug and pound and blast furiously, but all of that energy seems to go towards density rather than propulsion, the songs tranced out and almost looped sounding, the actual tempos slow, but within those slow tempos, the drums flail wildly, explosive blasts of tribal frenzy, the guitars unleash dizzying tangles of riffage, and wild squiggles of melody, the sound slipping from gnarled Deathspell like blackness, to pounding grunted goat metal, and from tripped out psychedelic heaviness to death metal dirgery, and more often than not, some gloriously twisted combination of all of the above. A new favorite for sure with the metalheads around here.
Killer grim artwork courtesy of aQ pal Justin Bartlett.
Now here on vinyl too!!!
Finally a Grouper related release that we can actually list and not fear that it will go out of print in two minutes (knock on wood!!).
Mirroring is the collaborative duo of Liz Harris (Grouper) and Jesy Fortino (Tiny Vipers), and this crushworthy duo deliver all the dark and smoldering sonic goods that one would expect from such a dream team. At first listen, one might assume this to be a split release rather than a collaboraton, as the opening track, "Fell Sound" begins in distinct Grouper territory with a muddy slow motion haze and Harris's barely there singing low in the mix. The next song, "Silent From Above" has a more dark folk vibe with acoustic guitar and Fortino's more emotive voice making itself present. But as things progress, the distinctive aspects of each player begin to meld, shift and play off of each other. Harris is given room to come out of her shell a bit more, and Fortino shows more restraint. After awhile, it becomes unclear just who is doing what, but the sound itself is darkly lyrical and contemplative and beautifully mesmerizing.
Yay, the '70s Japanese psych rock reissues continue! Years ago this one was available on cd as a fancy expensive Japanese import, but that's been gone for ages so it's nice to have this new reish. A Path Through Haze (great title, eh?) is the mostly instrumental 1971 solo album from acid guitarist Mizutani, a fixture of the scene as a session axe, you'll find him supplying the fuzzed out leads on such records as Love Live Life +1's Love Will Make A Better You and People's Ceremony - Buddha Meets Rock. With this, he stepped out on his own with what proved to be his only album as leader. It's an ambitious affair, employing not only an all-star cast of his heavy friends from the psych scene, but also both string quartet and woodwind quartets. Also prominent on this record is the Hammond organ, piano, and Moog synth of Masahiko Satoh, who did his own album also entitled A Path Through Haze somewhat later. Confusing, eh? "A Path Through Haze" is also a song on both albums, it seems it's a Satoh composition. Here that song starts off with gentle keyboard shimmer, before Mizutani gets his licks in about halfway through, amidst much spaceiness of effects. And that's sorta how it goes with this record, lots of pretty keyboards, yes, plenty of nice moody melody, but Mizutani (usually) eventually unleashes the fuzz, particularly on rockier/riffier numbers like the Hendrix-y "One For Janis". The "chamber rock" restraint characteristic of some of this record only lasts so long, the likes of "Tell Me What You Saw" being a bit of a freak-out, with mathy prog rock rippage galore. And its Satoh's synth that goes nuts some of the time too.
This one didn't make the top 50 in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler, by the way... in fact, he actually bags on this one a bit, but WE like it, so there. Cope also didn't like Foodbrain either. While we'll agree that we'd have been happy to hear Mizutani wail away here even more than he does, it's still a beautiful album, and even its most stonery sit-com soundtrack fusion moments have a certain charm.
The latest from these French ultra doomlords (and lady) begins all spaced out and ritualistic, shimmering clouds of metal, keening feedback, a droned out psychedelia that almost sounds like some modern take on legendary Japanese psychdrone gurus the Taj Mahal Travellers, but before long, that ritualistic drift collapses beneath the weight of crushing downtuned riffage, and pounding slow-motion drum pummel. But as with other recent Monarch records, the group have definitely managed to create a sound all their own, moving well past trudge and lumber, churn and crush, toward something a bit more blissed out, and definitely more droney. While the sound is rooted in roiling riffage, the riffs are underpinned by distant layered vocals, giving the sound a distinctly psychedelic vibe, and then the vocals proper kick in, they're feral and feminine, none of that gurgling or growling, instead a wild witchy wail, almost punk sounding, providing a strange sonic dichotomy, but one that make this way more interesting than your average dirge. Not to mention all manner of strange percussion, muted melody, and some surprisingly lush textures, wreathing everything in a softly psychedelic swirl, hazy and druggy, and surprisingly dreamy and meditative, especially the second half, which gets all blissed out, warm and whirling and super hypnotic. And that's just the first track. After a bit of an interlude, the blackened ambience of "Transylvanian Incantations", all murky voices and glimmering high end shimmer, the band finish things off with the 19+ minute "Black Becomes The Sun", the guitars gristly and oozing crumbling distortion, the sound seeming to drift toward classic doom metal, but then the vocals come in, all ethereal and angelic, and the whole sound is transformed into something much more washed out and shoegazey, almost like an ultradoom 4AD sort of sound. Partway through, the song shifts, and an avalanche of drum chaos launches a much harder and harsher second half, much sludgier, and crustier, the melodies of the first half still present, but beneath shards of feedback, and tangled howled vox, moments of true doom splintering into hellish downtuned crush and back again, the drumming mathy, the banshee vocals soaring and swooping wildly over the top, Monarch again managing to make a sound hellish and heavy, into something hypnotic, and weirdly, and grimly lovely.
Killer black on black artwork, housed in a 6 panel style fold out digpak style sleeve.
Years and years and years ago (2001!), we reviewed a record by a Canadian seventies worshipping hard rock combo with the bizarre name of Sir Hedgehog, and it was one of those classic records pretty much all the aQ heavy rockers here were obsessed with, we sold a ton too, and always sort of wondered what happened to those guys. Well, apparently at least some of them now play in another goofily monikered outfit, this one called Monobrow, and while they may not worship the seventies as much as they once did, they're still heavy and hard rocking and psychedelic, the new band is all instrumental though, with a more stoner metal vibe, big riffs, killer leads, bombastic drumming, the songs mathy and a little bit proggy, we even hear a little Fucking Champs, if the Champs were on MeteorCity. And actually, the deeper we get into the record, maybe these guys haven't ditched that seventies love as much as we thought, plenty of proto-metal sounding grooving, wild wah wah guitar freakouts, thick meandering melodic basslines, and songs that are pretty goddamn catchy considering they're instrumental, as well as pretty dense and proggy, but hell, we can't imagine anyone into heavy psych, stoner metal, riff rock or just classic heaviness, not flipping out over these guys.
Most definitely recommended, and another one of those records we can't seem to stop listening to.
We weren't entirely sure what to expect from a band called Moon Pool & Dead Band, we were even less sure when we saw the super bizarre cover, a striking painting of a family, standing in some sort of sewer, looking out at a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the mother holding what appears to be a dead child, the father consoling her with one hand, clutching a bat in the other, the sky choked with factory smog. What we do know, is we weren't expecting THIS. It's definitely space rock and definitely psychedelic, which puts it at least marginally in Agitated's wheelhouse, there are no guitars, at all, and the sound seems to be entirely synthesizers, and the occasional drums, but we're not disappointed at all! It's definitely not like anything we've heard before, which made even more sense when we discovered that Moon Pool & Dead Band is in fact a 'techno' offshoot of Wolf Eyes, although we're not hearing much actual techno here, instead, it's a sprawling sea of synths swirling and buzzing, occasionally coalescing around minimal motorik beats (hence the techno?), the background rife with glitches and squelches, the band locking onto long stretches of super druggy, synthy drift, getting loopy here and there and sounding a bit like a space rock High Wolf, there are a few moments of goofy almost Perrey and Kingsley style bloop and bleep, the opener on the B side woozy and playful, and a bit of a strange standout moment, but on both sides there's plenty of blurred ambient shimmer, and pulsing mesmerizing psych-synth drift, sort of the perfect mix between psychedelic space rock, and that new wave of Carpenter / Goblin influenced cinematic synthscapery. Recommended to both camps, but probably more so to folks with a foot in each!
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!
1971 strikes again! Proto-metal freaks, rejoice! Connoisseurs of the "early heavy" have reason to be excited about this, the lone album from this raw n' heavy psychedelic blues rock power trio from Denmark, originally released in '71, finally available as a legit cd reissue complete with liner notes and vintage photos in the cd booklet.
Recalling Vincebus Eruptum era Blue Cheer (big time!!) and early, bluesy Black Sabbath a bit too, Moses deliver blown-out, fuzz-bombed, acid-laced, hairy hippy proto-metal of Biblical proportions. Full of stoned vocals, loping riffs, and lots of wailing, wasted acid rock guitar soloing (worthy of Blue Cheer's Leigh Stephens and/or Randy Holden), Changes is highly recommended to anyone whose interest has been piqued by anything we've just mentioned or referenced. There's six songs here, nothing complex, certainly catchy though, what more to say? Each one provides the good vibes of ye olde primitive proto-metal, starting with the thudding blues brutality of title track "Changes" (which has nothing to do with the Black Sabbath piano ballad of the same name, by the way). Later on, "Beginning" gives the drummer some, ready for some DJ to mine for a crude breakbeat. "Skaev" is the only one here sung in Danish, but the lurching, surging riffage requires no translation. We're glad the final track, 7 minute track "Warning" is in English, though, 'cause we're getting a kick out of the lyrics, a story of a "straight" falling in with a turned-on crowd, which include lines like: "...and suddenly the girl gives him two feeling good pills, eat them if you can, a little after in a big discussion, forgotten everything about his wife, moving with the others in a big procession, he shouts out, this is life!" Awesome.
So, anyone into early Blue Cheer, Randy Holden's Population II, and the recently reissued Speed Glue & Shinki from Japan, stuff like that, will dig Moses for sure. Also, having just reviewed a bunch of '70s garage fuzz monsters from Africa, like Ngozi Family and Witch, we're hearing a lot of similarities here (minus the African thing, of course, but not the fuzz and groove). We bet if we said this was from Zambia or Nigeria, people would be freaking! Denmark is less "exotic", but that's not what's important when banging your head to these 1971 sounds.
