We'd been hearing about this band for a while now, the new project featuring Kevin Sharp of Brutal Truth and Bill Kelliher of Mastodon and a few other dudes, playing what? Grind of course, what else? But not really grind like you might be imagining it, Primate offer up a pretty fresh take on classic grind, merging the churn and pound and punkish ferocity with something WAY more melodic, a sound one could posit as the perfect mix of Brutal Truth and Mastodon, which is not such bad math when you think about it, and listening to Primate it definitely works. Pretty much all the tracks here thrash and grind to varying degrees, the drums heavy and complex, the guitars downtuned and chugging, the songs slipping from midtempo punk rock thrash to dense blackhole blast, Sharp's vocals as fierce as ever, but without fail, even the heaviest and most brutal of the bunch, are laced with some sort of serious melodic component, subtle in places, but totally overt in others, with tracks like "Global Division" getting CRAZY poppy, with some rad shredding guitar leads, and classic old school metalisms, or the punk metal pound of "Hellbound", which channels the same classic metal into a much more frenzied near-grind gallop. Or the harmonized metal guitars on "March Of The Curmudgeon, they even cover Black Flag's "Drinking And Driving" too, staying pretty true to the original. And of course, throughout, the group never hesitate to erupt into straight up full on grind, which of course kills, but it's all tangled up into songs that are surprisingly hooky while remaining super heavy.
It helps too that the production is massive too, super polished, everything sounds loud, the mix is perfect, which is another thing that keeps this from sounding like standard grind. Instead, Draw Back A Stump is like some weird, sorta poppy modern grind metal record, one that could most definitely be a gateway for all those Mastodon fans out there to sounds much more fast and frantic, furious and fucked up.
Originally scheduled to be released earlier this year on Record Store Day, this was easily one of the most anticipated RSD releases, which now, just a few months late, is finally here! Avid aQ list readers probably don't need to know much more. After all, it's four different aQ faves spread out over two lps: Pulse Emitter, Peaking Lights, Date Palms and Faceplant (Aaron Coyne of Peaking Lights), each offering up a whole side of unreleased material.
But in case you do need a little more to go on� Pulse Emitter, aka Darryl Groetsch delivers two length drifts of celestial synthscapery, all new age raga shimmer, soft swirling swells, dreamy melodic cascades, all woozy and washed out, ethereal and abstract, laced with playful melodies and lush ever shifting textures. Date Palms deliver a sidelong slab of smoldering psychedelic minimalism, one that starts out deep and droney, but soon blossoms into something much more rhythmic, a super skeletal sprawl of krautrock like mesmer, driving by a spare programmed rhythm and a thick buzzing bassline, wreathed in sitar like buzz, the vibe laid back and swoonsome, with just a hint of sinister malevolence, the perfect soundtrack for endless highways through darkened deserts, with the various elements gradually growing more and more dubbed out before slipping into a final stretch of hushed mesmer.
Expo 70 starts their side off with some Sabbath like riffage, low slung and swaggery, and then the drums kick in, and we're in full on metal territory, classic old school doom, who knew they had it in them? Sure they flirted with it in the past, but here they go for it. The heavy riffing and caveman drum pound is laced with some more psychedelic breakdowns with killer sorta shredding leads, the sort of spaced out stoner rock jam that could go on forever, but here eventually winds down into an oozing sprawl of muted black buzz. The second track is more what we're used to from Expo 70, at least at first, a sort of brooding cosmic shimmer, thick layers of synth and guitar whirring and swirling beneath a cloud of shimmering soft focus FX, but soon the drums come in, the track ominously and malevolently krautrocky, before blossoming into full on psychedelic space rock blowout, a sky full of tangled leads, the drums pounding and propulsive, the bassline woozy and fuzzy and darkly driving. Another mega jam that needs no terminus, but before it's cut off by running out of vinyl, the drums drift off, leaving just the guitar again to slowly fade out.
Faceplant's side opens with a cosmic disco version of Coynes' Peaking Lights, all dubbed out and psychedelic, but seriously groovy, and darkly funky, squelchy synths, spacey shimmer, plenty of reverb and echo, squiggly synth melodies everywhere, total retro-futuristic dubfunk grooviness. The second track is much more murky and laid back, sounding like a way more psychedelic and tripped out Muslimgauze, lurching rhythms, beneath a sky full of effects heavy swirl, more synth pulsations and an almost housey throb buried underneath, before finishing things off with a track that finds Coynes doing his best Carpenter / Goblin style synthscaping, a warped VHS soundtrack dipped in dub and sent spaceward, heady and hypnotic.
Killer stuff from all four groups. And as you might have imagined, LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. Includes a download coupon as well.
'Reunion' albums are a tough row to hoe for most bands. For every rare success (such as Van Halen's recent A Different Kind Of Truth, in our opinion; also the new P.i.L. is pretty good too, by the way), there's gotta be dozens embarrassing, useless, legacy-tarnishing failures (like, The Weirdness by The Stooges, ugh). And we know there's folks who'd argue with us about that Van Halen one... And even the good reunions still mainly just make you wanna listen to the band's 'actual' albums, right? So it's tough. But at the same time, who doesn't want to hear their favorite old band get back together and show the young 'uns how it's done? You can always hope.
Doom metal vets Saint Vitus take up the reunion challenge here, with their first album since 1990's V to feature popular frontman and stoner rock icon Wino at the mic. And while fans of Vitus and Wino won't be disappointed, we're not freaking out over it, either. Make no mistake, this definitely has the classic Vitus SOUND down, with the bellbottomed burnout heaviness we crave, distinguished by guitarist Dave Chandler's acid punk guitar-gnarl, and Wino's weathered croon. But, that's part of the problem... Wino's been a busy guy in recent years, in several different outfits, and solo too, so suddenly hearing him sing again in Saint Vitus, isn't quite so special as we want it to be. It's almost 'just another Wino album', not that we don't like those, but still. Also, while Vitus once were post Sabbath pioneers of doom, back in the day, when there were only like 5 or 6 doom metal bands in the world, now they're but one of many. So, you gotta judge this on the songs, and/or the riffs. Which are ok, if not the best Vitus ever wrote, with "Bleeding Ground" probably most worthy of their past SST-era glories.
And 2 of the 7 tracks on this relatively short, and oddly titled album (it's a drug thing, we don't understand) are instrumental filler - one a rather nice, but out-of-place acoustic number by Wino, the other an album-ending noisy feedback fest from Chandler called "Withdrawal" that's very Vitus-y, but still not a song. So, just 5 actual new songs, quite heavy and doomy and slooooow, but also, unavoidably, having a bit of a rehashed feel to 'em.
They definitely didn't embarrass themselves here, these 34 and a half minutes of blown out old school doom are just the fix any fan of Vitus and/or Wino wants, but we can't help but feel that the band's *former* final album, 1994's excellent Die Healing, itself at the time a reunion effort (with original lead singer Scott Reagers), would have been a better last testament.
Sayona is another one of those outfits that should have the aQ faithful frothing, a new group made up of several members of weirdo Belgian ritualistic psychedelic noise folk occultists Sylvester Anfang teamed up with a mysterious woman known as Shazzula, who most aQ folks probably know from the Black Mass Rising film, which we sold a bunch of, but who has also played with Aqua Nebula Oscillator, Farflung, White Hills, and Mater Suspiria Vision among others, together, they conjure up something weirdly kosmische and new agey, slipping easily from near static drugged out droney drift, to pulsating sci-fi synthscapery.
The tape opens with a field of pulsing static over thick swirls of layered synth murk, very
new agey but far more ominous and malevolent, a sinister soundscape of buzzing electronics, and muted buried rhythms, all wreathed in feedback and a layer of gauzy thrum. The sound blossoms into something a bit more corrosive, with thick guitar buzz unfurling over lush chordal swells, anchored by a programmed skeletal beat, that builds to an actual propulsive groove, darkly driving, giving it a definite machinelike robo-krautrock vibe, super mesmerizing and dreamily druggy, all over a woozy, lo-fi sprawl of celestial whir and hum, shimmer and soft skree.
The tape is weirdly edited, the transitions abrupt and jarring in places, as if someone was changing the channels, but it weirdly works with the overall vibe.
Imagine a mash up of tripped out retro-futuristic late night synth jam, murky blackened sonic ritual and hazy headtrip soundtracks for some super stoned end-of-the-world planetarium show. So good. And most likely VERY limited.
YES! We're big fans of lesser-known krautrock guitarist Gunter Schickert (who also did production work with Klaus Schulze, like, for Japan's Far East Family Band). As soon as we heard that his Uberfallig album was getting a new reissue, we knew it was going to have to be a Record Of The Week. We've been in love with this record forever, referencing it and Schickert plenty of times in other reviews when we want to cite something incredibly atmospheric and minimalistically trance inducing from deep in the krautrock zone. There was a previous cd edition of this we stocked years ago, but that's been out of print for ages. Now Germany's industrious Bureau B label have stepped in and added this rare late-krautrock masterpiece to their ongoing, essential series of reissues of essential kraut / kosmishe albums. And it's on both digipak cd *and* vinyl now as well!
Uberfallig was Schickert's second album, originally issued in 1979 on the Sky label, the follow up to his 1975 Brain debut Samtvogel. It's hard to believe somebody this good didn't record more, or with other people, but we're only aware of a couple later recordings that have ever surfaced. Here on Uberfallig, Schickert's exceptionally hypnotic space-echo guitar work, similar to Manuel Gottsching of Ashra, is matched by fascinating rhythmic pulsations, at times recalling prime Can-like velocities or the circular bubbliness of aQ faves AR & Machines, and some Pink Floyd Meddle era pastoral psych vibes as well. And it's mostly just Schickert (guitar, voice) and a few friends (drums and vocals) plus nature sounds, deftly deployed.
Opener "Puls" is worth the price of admission alone. It does indeed pulse, for nearly 16 epic minutes, building from calmly rhythmic beginnings to pure hypno-guitar bliss, mixed with subtle, splashy, sploshy field recordings - evoking the idea of Schickert and his drummer colleague Charles M. Heuer wading upstream in the wilds somewhere as their music plays. That begins the recurrent watery theme found on this album, an ever present liquid watery ambience, the sounds of wind and rain and surf and babbling brooks woven in among the "actual" instruments. The cover image of an intense looking Schickert suggests this too, his visage overlaid with what looks like the play of light on the surface of water.
The second cut, "In Der Zeit", is a shorter, folkier number, with more surf-sounds and bird calls and a gentle, hushed female vocal, accompanying Schickert's pleasant, repeating acoustic guitar motif. So nice.
Track three, "Apricot Brandy II", as some may guess from the name, is a sequel to the first track on Schickert's debut Samtvogel (wish we still had a reissue of that - maybe Bureau B will do something about that, too). Again with a watery intro, then the nervous ticking of drumsticks, heralding a quietly unfurling, slightly sinister and suspenseful 12 and a half minute, gently percolating proto-post-rock trip. We're hearing some Can circa Tago Mago, and Tortoise and Circle, too, especially with the murmuring vocals chanting "Apricot Brandy" amidst other drones and moans. It's all druggy and delicate, moody and mesmeric. Quite the tour de force, coming to a close with strange samples and lovely crackling.
If that wasn't enough, the album ends with even more haunting mesmer, the aptly titled, the 8+ minute long "Wanderer", slow and spooky at first, with more of that tick-tock drumming and watery splashes. It's got a twilight sound to it, so beautiful and mysterious and mesmeric, like this whole amazing, organic, echo-laden album.
Includes, along with credits and lyrics, new 2012 liner notes from Schickert's contemporary Asmus Tietchens, in both English and German, and also an interesting note from Schickert, explaining that some of this music was used on the soundtrack to a film about the gay community in New York called Brooklyn 11238, which we'd never have guessed...
While we'll state that this is reissue definitely something crucial for fans of Agitation Free, AR & Machines, Moebius & Rodelius, Michael Rother, You, Ashra, and latter-day krautrockers Village Of Savoonga, we should also make clear that this is NOT just for krautrock collector nerds - even if you've NEVER heard a krautrock record before, we'd still recommend this one, obscure as it is. It's that good.
This rare album (only 500 copies of the LP were originally issued in 1974) is now finally reissued on cd! "Blau" (Blue) is the second solo effort from legendary krautrock electronics pioneer Conrad Schnitzler, following his amazing debut "Rot" (Red) and his
Here's an unexpected set of reissues: vinyl versions of two classic krautrock albums by electronica pioneer Conrad Schnitzler. They're legit, done from master tapes we're told.
"Rot" (Red) was Con's amazing 1973 solo debut. Intense science-fictional bleep-drone, with ironic titles like (side one) "Meditation" and even "Krautrock" (side two). It's totally dark (but a little silly too). The Plate Lunch cd reissue of this we used to stock is now out of print, so that makes this new LP version even more essential. Of course, this vinyl reissue is pressed on red wax, in a red sleeve.
This is the first release on Casual Acid Tea, a new label run by Matthew Clark, the drummer for Premonition 13 (Wino from St Vitus and the Obsessed's new band), and this strangely titled record finds Clark teaming up with Colin Langenus of USAisamonster, which already seems like a strange combination, but when you realize that this group was created to cover tracks from those great Secret Museum Of Mankind compilations of historic early ethnographic field recordings, it somehow seems even stranger.
But once you get an earful, it stops sounding so strange after all. In the tradition of groups like the Sun City Girls, this Secret Museum Of Kind Men tackles two tracks, one from Greece and one from Japan, and channels the spirit of the original, while imbuing it with all the modern musical history that informs their playing, and the results are pretty fantastic.
The A side is a version of "Kaike Ena Sholio" by A. Kostis, and is a gorgeous, slithery slab of buzzing minor key gypsy folk, the spidery guitars matched perfectly by wordless female vox, the drums driving and propulsive, those guitars splintering into slashes of psychedelic skree, and near the end, dense clouds of tangled freakout, the track droney and heavy and hypnotic, and it ends way too soon after just over three minutes. Not hard to imagine it sprawling into a heady expanse of droned out psychedelic raga.
The B side is a reinterpretation of "Ise-No-Umi" by the Imperial Household Orchestra, and is much more restrained than the A side, crooned vocals over fast picked raga like guitar buzz, a simple skeletal rhythm, and then about a minute in, the songs blossoms into something a bit more epic, the drums more driving, the guitars soaring, the vocals soaring alongside, slowly building to a final squall of dirgey pound and psychedelic swirl.
So awesome. Way recommended for fans of Sun City Girls, Siamese Temple Ball, Neung Phak, Dengue Fever, Sublime Frequencies and of course all the Secret Museum Of Mankind collections.
Rumor was that this was gonna be Segall's 'metal' record. The title did nothing to dissuade that notion, 'Slaughterhouse', and the garish black and white howling monster/medusa artwork definitely seemed to support that theory as well. And while we remained skeptical, album opener "Death" (good metal title btw) briefly gave us pause, with its wild opening, a churning squall of super distorted guitars and squealing feedback, but soon the record proper kicks in and all is well, fear not, Ty Segall has not gone metal (as much as we think that would be amazing!) however, this is most definitely his heaviest record yet. His first recording with his live band, which of course includes longtime collaborator Mikal Cronin, find the sound cranked to eleven, the guitars blown out and distorted, the riffs heavy and crunchy, the songs are still garage pop, but with some serious heft, the vocals occasionally slipping into raspy howls, the guitars exploding into full on shredding leads, the group sounding all Stooges-y, raw and feral and seriously fierce. And it totally suits them. And even the tracks that are all jangly and poppy, are weirdly produced, with the guitars crumbling and in the red, beautiful harmony vocals, all oooh's and aaah's laid over grinding near metallic riffs, pounding drums, this is most definitely the first Segall record we'd describe as 'headbangable', but the key here, is that the songs are still impossibly catchy, just check out "I Bought My Eyes", which is so catchy we were convinced it was a cover, sounding like some sixties or seventies classic rock jam supercharged and dirtied up. The title track is a 90 second blast of churning garage punk riffage, with glass gargling vox, before they slip right into "The Tongue", with its Oh Sees-like opener, and sixties jangle rock verse, only to explode into some full on psychedelic noise freakout.
Beyond the sonic shift though, these are definitely some of the best songs we've heard from Segall, the heaviness and dirge-y rockingness only making them that much more intense, and in addition to the originals, Cronin contributes one track, another 90 second blast of super blown out Stooges-y swagger, that as you might imagine is shot through with some irresistible poppiness, and there's a couple of covers, they manage to transform Fred Neil's "The Bag I'm In", into a super dynamic tangle of low slung bass, and dense walls of psychnoise crunch, pounding garage rock pummel doused in wild guitars and sheets of blown out psychedelic guitar, and the take Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy" and rough it up a bit, adding some guitar crunch, and messing with the lyrics, before stumbling to chaotic premature halt. And let's not neglect to mention the 10 minute closer "Fuzz War", which sounds like it could be some lost Fushitsusha basement tape, or some lost seventies private press underground psych jam, a sprawling landscape of drone and buzz, noxious clouds of grinding guitars, super abstract drum splatter, the sound slipping from dark and droney to wildly chaotic, to a weird almost industrial clatter, and finally to a sort of freejazz drum heavy noiserock coda. So cool. And as you might have surmised, definitely one of our favorite Segall records yet!
Latest from this all female Swiss doom combo, who we had never heard before but are digging a lot, their sound a blackened dirgey death doom, that slips easily from tarpit creep to almost Sabbathy groove, to churning metallic pound with all sort of variation in between, killer riffs, and a harsh raspy vokill (that can slip into a clean angelic croon). The record begins with a bit of clean guitar, draped over what sounds like the crackle of a fire burning, when the songs lurches to life, the riff is a slithery beast, driven by some muscled pound, only to drift right back into a strange bit of psychedelic shimmer, all muted buzz and ominously whispered vox, before the hammer falls, and the song bursts back into motion, this time with haunting clean vocals beneath the churning riffage. The follow up track begins lovely and lilting as well, but soon splinters into some filthy slithery sludge, laced with some surprising melody, and some cool post rocky parts, and an unexpectedly rocking second half. The rest of the record seems to shift freely between, haunting minimalism, and brooding chugging bombast, notable exceptions being the mostly mellow "Souls Colliding" which sounds more like slowcore than doom really, even when it gets heavy, and near the end, there's even some haunting lovely violin, or the clean vocal driven "(You Are) The Mirror" which sounds more like L7 or Hole but more doomy, the clean vocal harmonies a nice contrast to the downtuned chug and churn.
But all of that is cast aside for the closer, a seriously abject slab of slow-mo sludge, with some sick demonic vocal rasps, the track a deathmarch dirge, pounding away maniacally, the bleak black pound only occasionally offset by cool clean almost chantlike vox, drifting over the relentless crush, which soon sink into back into the mire, leaving the track to return to its black murky malevolence.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Originally released as a super limited cd-r back in 2009, these first recordings from this Fell Voices side project finally gets a super deluxe (but sadly INSANELY LIMITED, only 100 copies, of which we got TEN) vinyl reissue, pressed on heavy white vinyl, mastered at 45rpm, and BEAUTIFULLY packaged (more on that below).
Here's what we had to say about this Sleepwalker record when we first reviewed the cd-r:
We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices.
And they were right, Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive.
The tracks here, originally released as the 2009 Demo cd-r, are more post rock influenced, with spare simple drumming, deep rumbling bass, spidery guitar melodies, repetitive and motorik, eventually the sound cranks up but doesn't get metal so much as it gets rocking, pounding away for a while before exploding into something more expansive and epic, sounding a bit like Godspeed, noise rock and black metal all woven together, surprisingly melodic and catchy, a little bit jangly too, although it does seem to get darker and blacker as it goes. The second track is murky and washed out, blurred and a bit shoegazey, even the shrieks and blasts and buzz and smoothed out into something way more hypnotic and dreamlike, before the final track finishes off in a blaze of blown out, blissed out blackened post rock buzz, epic and majestic, hypnotic and repetitive, the vocals buried yowls, the drums way down in the mix, all riding on the soaring sheets of black-psych-metal-gaze guitars. Awesome.
As for the packaging, Vedavu have pulled out all the stops. Especially considering there are only 100 copies. The vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve, which in turn is housed in a full color jacket, all the images super bright and abstract, not really black metal looking at all, the cover looks like pouring milk or some mysterious white honeycomb, all very striking, and on top of that there's a thick textured paper Japanese style obi, embossed and printed in gold reflective ink. Wow. And again, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! We have ten and once these are gone that's it!!
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If you really know your '70s Indonesian psych rock, or (like us) at least picked up the great Those Shocking Shaking Days compilation we raved about a while back, then the name Benny Soebardja may be familiar to you... he was lead guitarist and vocalist for fuzzy progsters Shark Move, and also appeared on that comp with his later band, Lizard. The Lizard track, "Candle Light", we said was so classic '70s sounding, that it coulda been the Indonesian answer to the Steve Miller Band! Well, delving deeper into the dusty grooves unearthed by Those Shocking Shaking Days, the Strawberry Rain label (who did the same with another Shocking Shaking Days alumnus, AKA) now presents this deluxe double cd, compiling all three private press lps that Benny & Lizard released circa 1976-78. (All 3 are also 'available' as individual vinyl reissues too, in rather limited quantities though, in fact, the first one so limited we never even saw it.... we do have the vinyl of Gimme A Piece Of Gut Rock and double lp Night Train though.)
On this cd collection, there's 30 tracks, including the aforementioned "Candle Light", all of it great psychedelic stuff, definitely groovy, with English lyrics, progressive chops, fancy frenzied fretwork, lovely harmonies, sizzling synths, spacey mellow moments, and a special vibe indeed.
You might get into this initially for all the fuzzed out, "heavy, maaaan" moments, but you'll find yourself coming back for prettier, melodic pop parts too. For sure, this collection reveals Benny S. to be quite the talent in that area, melody being crucial to all these songs, whether he and Lizard are doing heavy rock or jazzy discofunk or Beatles inflected popsike (or some crazy hybrid of all that at once). He certainly didn't limit himself, and it doesn't take titles like "A Signal From Outer Space" to recognize this as truly progressive music (and by the way, that one, which ends disc 2, lives way up to its title!). Lotsa gems here, and it even seems to get better as it goes along, with some of the strongest stuff coming from Lizard's last album, Night Train, though we love it all.
Comes with an informative, illustrated 36 page book, the works.
One of four new tapes this week on weirdo UK tape label The Tapeworm, and as much as we love all of them this time out (and we do), this one we find is fast becoming our favorite, but then we've never been able to resist deep, dense, dronemusic.
Sinus is a collection of sprawling sine wave tones, which produce the sort of drones, that with headphones on, make your head feel like it's being filled with some sort of thick liquid. Or, if played through speakers at high enough volume, will probably set your whole house to resonating. Lush and layered, the main component a pulsing soft swell of extreme low end, nearly rib cage rattling in its power, but strangely serene, a deep black hole pulse, that throbs glacially, while over the top, other tones offer subtle sonic colorations, and wistful barely there melodies, soft turbulence and bleary slightly blown out textures.
An utterly immersive sonic experience, meditative, bliss out deep drone dreaminess, with just a bit of sinister sonic malevolence, which gives these pieces the feel of some strange arthouse soundtrack, it's not difficult to imagine an empty expanse of deep black space, or some bottomless cavern reaching all the way to the center of the earth, or even a crumbling abandoned city, the perfect score for the end of the world, and with just the tiniest bit of black dub throb, and abstract ambient techno vibe, a murky buried otherworldly propulsion, which at times make Sinus feel like the bleakest, most haunting Pop Ambient jam Kompakt never put out.
We were lucky enough to have the legendary Supreme Dicks play at our South By Southwest party earlier this year, and it was just as amazing as we had hoped, ramshackle and loose, the songs wild and psychedelic, and crazy catchy, and the performance itself was unexpected, with a woman sitting in front of the band, performing strange semaphore with various fruits, eventually eating the fruit and performing rituals with the peels. Then one member walked around the audience with a light activated theremin and a light up blinking child's toy. Afterwards, one of the The Dicks took us aside, and handed us this dvd, explaining that it was their psychedelic cable access show. We had no idea what to expect, and as insane as we might have imagined it would be, it's somehow even MORE! A two hour barrage of drugged out experimental imagery, with total ADD editing, the visuals the sort of thing that would possibly cause seizures, various goings on in the studio, and bizarre guests, overlaid with all manner of primitive digital effects, all set to a constantly shifting sonic collage of voices, and musical fragments, dizzying and confusional and nearly overwhelming in its sheer what-the-fuck-ness. We imagined that at some point the insanity would get dialed back so you could hear the guests, or maybe there would be a more straight ahead segment, but nope, you essentially never hear anything anyone says, unless it's doused in effects and tangled up with a million other voices. This is the sort of thing you can imagine some Butthole Surfers like band projecting while they perform, it's total eye popping, brain melting weirdness.
The LA Weekly called Three Geniuses "The most intentionally psychedelic show on cable", which we have to say is a massive understatement. If you can dig through all the psychedelic imagery, you might get a glimpse of a transvestite body builder with Tourettes Syndrome, or the drummer from the Germs, or any number of amazing and bizarre looking characters, the whole thing apparently performed / broadcast live, letting things develop organically, and often fall apart completely, but the planned parts are so fucked up, not sure if anyone could even tell when things went wrong. Although some would argue everything about this is so so so wrong. Which is precisely what makes it so mesmerizingly demented and impossibly awesome. Probably best to be viewed while high as a kite, but even stone cold sober, this is some deliriously psychedelic stuff.
Bonus jams include a live Three Geniuses performance at the AT&T center in 2009, in front of a very confused looking audience. And an Ariel Pink video directed by the Three Geniuses that basically looks like AP sounds!
If you go way back in the aQuarius list archive, you'll find us raving about Turing Machine years and years ago, and while that was before our reviews got to be so long, it didn't take a huge review to explain that they were one of our favorite instrumental post rock bands. We compared them to Polvo and Drive Like Jehu, Pitchblende, Shellac, Unwound, their sound was mathy and propulsive, driving and complex, a modern day kraut / prog combo that made it all seem effortless, from darkly hypnotic minimal grooves, to wildly dense almost metallic heaviness. Much of their magic was the incredible drumming of Jerry Fuchs, who tragically passed away a few years ago.
This album, recorded prior to Fuch's death, is the first Turing Machine release since their Zwei record in 2004, that long hiatus in no small part due to Fuchs' extracurricular drumming activity, which included a whole bunch of dance outfits, !!!, the Juan Maclean, LCD Soundsystem, even Massive Attack, and all that dance music drumming definitely had a huge effect on Turing Machine, who were no longer just a nineties style math/post rock outfit, but instead had become something much more. Fear not though, there's plenty of awesomely motorik post rock jamming, it's just that a lot of the time, there are also pulsing synths, or electronics. But just check out album opener, "Yeah, C'mon", which starts out like some strangely percolating new wave jam, the drums almost disco-y, the driving synths, but as the guitars come in, and coalesce into riffs, the song begins to take on rock form, until finally, exploding into some seriously fierce and driving post rock, wrapped in wild guitar squiggles and all sorts of random electronics, and the drumming, fucking KICK ASS.
"Lazy Afternoon Of The Jaguar" is equal parts laid back dance groove and motorik krautfunk, the guitars looped in woozy psychedelic swirls around the super tight bass/drums foundation. "Slave To The Algorithm" is total electro kraut-funk, Fuchs doing his best robo-beat accompanied by all manner of pulsing synths and weirdly processed guitars. The title track sounds like "Legs" by ZZ Top, stripped down and given a cosmic psychedelic space rock makeover, the synths again in full effect, but the drums locked tight, and the guitars loose and spidery and wildly psychedelic. "If It's Gone (It's On)" adds vocals to the mix, and lays down a serious slab of crunchy, fuzzy, guitar driven post-punk electro-funk, and record closer "Bovina 2/23/08" finds the band in full on heart of the sun mode, effortlessly channeling the sort of FX drenched space rock psychedelic freakout that should most definitely endear them to fans of White Hills, the Heads and the like.
Listen on: Deezer
A couple years back, you may recall, there was great a record called Black Noise by an artist named Pantha Du Prince, and although the album title might have the uninitiated imagining something, well, blackened and noisy, it was in fact a gorgeous collection of minimal electronica, that had us totally smitten. So here we are a few years later, and while this is not a new PdP record, it might be something even better. Ursprung finds PdP teamed up with Stephan Abry from 'kraut-folk' combo Workshop, for what is essentially a disc of loop-guitar kosmische electronica, with Abry unfurling gorgeous Vini Reilly like guitar figures, abstract melodic tangles and blissed out Rother style new age kraut mesmer, to which PdP adds minimal beats, muted rhythms, various arrangements of electro skitter, and murky Kompakt style pulses. The sound varies greatly over the course of these ten tracks, but they're all held together by a distinctive melodic / compositional thread. And while many of the tracks are definitely beat driven, it's strangely enough not really about the beat. But more about the rhythm and the guitar interacting.
The opener is all spidery twang, over a pitter patter rhythm, all drifting just below a layer of hiss drenched keening shimmer, which is soon joined by thick chordal low end thrum, warm and whirling and totally mesmerizing. The follow up sends little melodic flourishes into the ether, to drift weightlessly, before a blurred shuffle surfaces, pocked with little bits of glitch and static. From there on out, Ursprung weave a lush and delicate landscape of steel string buzz, of smeared dreamlike melodies, of barely there pulsations, chiming harmonics, murky moody dirges and fuzz drenched sprawls of Tim Hecker like shimmer, rumbling whirs and insect like skitter, lo-fi drones and percolating synths, the sound crystalline and shimmery one second, blurred and smeared and bleary the next, the beats barely there one moment, skittering and stuttering the next, but all perfectly woven into a fantastic songsuite of mesmerizing droned out guitar driven electro-minimalism.
Heads up all you Sublime Frequencies obsessives out there, and we know there are a lot of you, this is record number two from a new label called Sham Palace, run by Mark Gergis, one of the guys who runs SF, and whose first release was the amazing Leh Jani lp from aQ fave Omar Souleyman. This new lp is a collection of Dabke, a celebratory music performed at weddings and parties in the Middle East, hypnotic electrified dance jams driven by the buzzing of the mejwiz, a double reed bamboo flute, this modern version accompanied by driving electronic beats, over which a male vocalist, calls out for the audience to dance and participate. Does that all sound a little familiar? That's because Omar Souleyman is probably the most well known Dabke performer, at least in the West, so if you can't get enough of that sound, here's a killer collection of super obscure Dabke cuts, collected from various tapes and cds, featuring tracks captured live at parties and weddings, and like those Souleyman jams, the jams here are driving and hypnotic, psychedelic and totally mesmerizing, totally tranced out, the beats booming, pounding, skittering, the melodies buzzing wildly, the tracks here all vary quite a bit, from stripped down and a bit more mellow, to bombastic and booming, to brittle and lo-fi and distorted and drenched in echo and reverb, the programed beats wild and chaotic, the grooves totally irresistible, some amazing stuff.
And needless to say, WAY recommended, especially for all Sublime Frequencies / Omar Souleyman fans!!
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!! Packaged in nice full color sleeves with printed liner notes on the back of the jacket.
Originally released in 2004 in a criminally limited run of just 250 copies, this killer slab of classic psych/drone/raga is available again, however briefly, reissued on VHF, a swank double lp, accompanied by a live DVD (more on that in sec).
An amazing archival selection of tracks, performed by the 'classic' lineup: Mick Flower, Neil Campbell, Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport, Julian Bradley, and right off the bat, it's total bliss, a thick droned out wash of heavy layered buzz, soaring upper register skree and pulsing low end throb woven into a feedback drenched psych-kraut raga, laced with all manner of fluttering woodwinds, warped FX, which sort of sets the template for the rest of the records, longform drugged out space psych ur-drone drift, the various tracks bleeding into one another, ending suddenly, the edits weirdly jagged, but it all contributes to the home brewed flavor of these incredible psychedelic explorations.
Pulsating guitars are blurred into thick swirling clouds, and draped over woozy low slung basslines and creaking electric guitar buzz, primitive ritualistic rhythms, pound and skitter through a fog of sci-fi bleeps and bloops, smatterings of splattery percussion drift atop processed guitars and streaks of string buzz and electronic squelch, the sound often coalescing into some seriously heady grooves, total mesmerizing minimal hypnorock krautjams that should have fans of Circle and Sylvester Anfang and Wooden Shjips losing their shit.
The second lp takes up right where the first one lets off, but dials it back a bit, with some tripped out alien folk, all looped steel string guitar and bloopy rhythm, which gradually becomes more and more driving, like some strange motorik electro folk, replete with keening vox and loose chaotic drumming, before slipping into some sweetly somnambulent buzz, a simple stumbling rhythm, beneath a sky of shimmery strum and hazy chordal wheeze. Soon the sound becomes almost funky, a strange sort of folk groove, that sounds like a field recording of some lost tribal folk, which dissipates leaving some gorgeously serene folk, all fuzzy and softly twangy, which almost immediately splinters into stretch of pulsing krautrocky grooviness, only to return to that washed out skyfull of swirling strums, this time with some skittery splattery free jazz drums added to the mix, and some atonal twang, before finishing off in a soft focus blaze of skronk flecked psychedelic thrum. So awesome.
The accompanying dvd includes some amazing live footage of the group, the video of varying quality, with two of the clips looking professionally shot/edited, the sound incredible, with the band mostly in full rock mode, bombastic and heavy, some seriously energetic psychedelic stuff, and also includes some amusing band commentary on one of the tracks!
A tome focused on the progressive metal music genre has been long overdue... perhaps in part due to the fact that the genre is so expansive and there are so many debatable definitions. Author Jeff Wagner (former editor for Metal Maniacs magazine) has taken the bull by the horns, focusing the spotlight on prog metal heavyweights Rush, Queensryche, Voivod, and Meshuggah - all very deservingly so - but we take a bit of issue with his grouping Dream Theater in with those true pioneers (yeah, we're going to catch some flak from DT fans for questioning their inclusion amongst those ranks, aren't we?!). Wagner presents the five bands as the standards by which pretty much all others covered in this book are held. Indeed, most of the other bands he features were inspired by one or more of those abovementioned innovators. Many nail 'the sound' very well, but break little new ground themselves. So we ponder, can they truly be permitted in the progressive metal arena? Hmmmm, 'tis something of a quandary when trying to define something which is supposed to be ever exploring, innovating and evolving. Nevertheless, if you are new to the genre (and would prefer to read a book than scour the internet to get yourself up to speed on the subject), this book is a terrific starting point... especially for the revisiting of the truly unique trailblazers Fates Warning, Thought Industry, and Celtic Frost. Particularly useful are the lists of recommendations in the back of the book to get any neophyte up to speed or to flesh out the collections of older fans. Oh, and the book features original cover artwork by Michel "Away" Langevin of Voivod. 400 page paperback. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! ABRAHAMSSON, CARL "Fanzinera" (Trapart) book 37.00 ACEPHALIX "Deathless Master" (Southern Lord) cd 14.98 ADVANCE BASE "A Shut-In's Prayer" (Orindal Records) lp 12.98 AQUARIAN, DJIN "Destiny Of Aquarius" (Global Recording Artists) cd-r 14.98 ARARAT "II" (Elektrohasch) cd 16.98 BALTHROP, ALABAMA "We Have Electricity" (End Up) lp 14.98 BATTLES "Dross Glop" (Warp) cd 16.98 BLACKQUEEN "March Of The Obsidian Triumvirate" (Silentium Spells) cd ep 6.98 BLACKQUEEN / THE FAMILY CURSE "split" (Fainting Room) 7" 6.98 BLOWFLY "Disco" (Weird World) lp 14.98 BLUE PHANTOM "Distortions" (Kismet) cd 17.98 BUNKUR "Bludgeon" (Nuclear War Now! Productions) cd 10.98 BURIAL HEX "Book Of Delusions" (Cold Spring) cd 17.98 BURZUM "Umskiptar" (Back On Black) 2lp 38.00 CAN "The Lost Tapes" (Spoon / Mute) 3cd box set + book 32.00 CEYLEIB PEOPLE "Tanyet" (Vault) lp 16.98 CIRCLE "Serpent" (Ektro) cd 17.98 CODEINE "When I See The Sun" (Numero Group) 3 x 2lp + 3cd box set 83.00 COFFINS "March Of Despair" (Hammer Heart) cd/lp 12.98/17.98 DECEASED "Surreal Overdose" (Shrieks From The Hearse Records) cd 10.98 DELTA FUNKTIONEN "Traces" (Delsin) cd 17.98 DIIV "Oshin" (Captured Tracks) lp 16.98 DISTAL "Civilization" (Tectonic) cd 12.98 DJIN AQUARIAN & PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE SOUND "Save The World" (Prophase) lp 17.98 EL POLEN "Cholo (OST)" (Lion Productions) cd 16.98 EMERSON, DONNIE & JOE "Dreamin' Wild" (Light In The Attic) cd/lp 14.98/19.98 FATHER YOD "Ya Ho Wa's Morning Meditations" (Global Recording Artists) cd-r 25.00 FATHER YOD & THE SOURCE FAMILY "The Thought Adjusters" (Drag City) lp 22.00 FENNESZ, CHRISTIAN "Aun: The Beginning And The End Of All Things (Soundtrack)" (Ash International) cd 15.98 FLESH LIGHTS "Muscle Pop" (Twistworthy Records) lp 12.98 FORKBOY "1993-1999" (Kaos Kontrol / Arkisto) cd 13.98 GARY WAR "Jared's Lot" (Spectrum Spools) lp 22.00 GAY CAT PARK "Synthetic Woman" (Medical) lp 19.98 GRUMBLING FUR "Alice" (Latitudes) cd/lp 14.98/19.98 HAWKINS, SCREAMIN' JAY "Rare, Unissued or Just Plain Weird" (Rumble) lp 24.00 HELPFUL SOUL, THE "First Album" lp 19.98 HIGH SPIRITS "Another Night" (High Roller) lp 17.98 HOUSTON, PENELOPE "On Market Street" (Glitterhouse) lp 19.98 JESUS & MARY CHAIN "Stoned & Dethroned" (1972) lp 15.98 JOHANNSSON, JOHANN "Copenhagen Dreams: Music From The Film By Max Kestner" (NTOV) lp 21.00 KREIDLER / TARWATER "split" (Bureau B) 12" 12.98 LEOPOLD, PERRY "Experiments In Metaphysics" (Guerssen) lp 28.00 LES OLIVENSTEINS "s/t" (Born Bad) lp 21.00 LIARS "Wixiw" (Mute) lp 17.98 MAGIC TRICK "Ruler Of the Night" (Hardly Art) cd/lp 11.98/14.98 MANTRONIX "King of the Beats" (Warlock Records) 2cd 23.00 MARSHALL, OWEN "The Naked Truth" (Jazzman) cd/lp+7" 17.98/17.98 MEDITATIVE SECT "Laceration Points" (Merz Tapes) cassette 8.98 MONYPENY, DEREK "Limerance" (Underwater Experiences) cassette 3.98 MORKOBOT "Morbo" (Supernatural) cd 17.98 MOUNTAIN GOATS, THE "The Hound Chronicles & Hot Garden Stomp" (Shrimper) 2cd 15.98 MY BLOODY VALENTINE "Isn't Anything" (Sony) cd 27.00 MY BLOODY VALENTINE "Loveless" (Sony) 2cd 31.00 NAZORANAI (STEPHEN O'MALLEY + KEIJI HAINO + OREN AMBARCHI) "s/t" (Ideologic Organ) 2lp 32.00 NAZORANAI (STEPHEN O'MALLEY + KEIJI HAINO + OREN AMBARCHI) "s/t" (Ideologic Organ) cd 16.98 NIKE7UP "Lucky!" (Light Lodge) 7" 8.98 NILE "At The Gate Of Sethu" (Nuclear Blast) cd 15.98 NILES, JOHN JACOB "The Boone - Tolliver Recordings" (LM) cd 14.98 NO JOY "Negaverse" (Mexican Summer) 12" 15.98 NORTHERN HAZE "Sinnaktuq" (Supreme Echo) lp 24.00 OBITS "Let Me Dream If I Want To / The City Is Dead" (Sub Pop) 7" 5.50 OCTAVE ONE "Revisted: Here, There, And Beyond" (430 West Records) cd 17.98 OH NO "Ohnomite" (Five Day Weekend) cd 17.98 OLD MAN GLOOM "No" (Hydrahead) cd/2lp/cassette 14.98/28.00/12.98 OUTER SPACE "Akashic Record (Events: 1986-1990)" (Spectrum Spools) lp 22.00 PACO SALA "Ro-Me-Ro" (Digitalis) lp 19.98 PAINTING PETALS ON PLANET GHOST "Transparent Winter" (Silentes) cd 14.98 PEACOCK, ANNETTE "I'm The One" (Future Days Recordings / Light In The Attic) cd/2lp 15.98/33.00 PLANKTON WAT "Spirits" (Thrill Jockey) lp 15.98 PUBLIC IMAGE LTD. (P.I.L.) "This Is Public Image Limited" (PiL Official) cd/2lp /29.00 REPEAT AFTER ME "From The Mountaintop" (For Once Records) lp 9.98 RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR "The Revolution" (Sub Pop) 7" 5.98 ROOT "Heritage Of Satan" (Agonia) cd 16.98 SAINT VITUS "Die Healing" (Hellhound) cd 15.98 SCHEIDT, MIKE "Stay Awake" (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98 SCOTT, RAYMOND QUINTETTE "Radio Music" (Doxy) lp 26.00 SEPULCRAL "Anthrophagy Of Doom" (Razorback) cd 10.98 SICULICIDIUM "A Rothado Viragok Szinuket Vesztik" (Valse Sinistre) cd 13.98 SOEBARDJA, BENNY "Gimme A Piece Of Gut Rock" (Strawberry Rain) lp 28.00 SOEBARDJA, BENNY "Night Train" (Strawberry Rain) 2lp 35.00 SONNY AND THE SUNSETS "Longtime Companion" (Polyvinyl) cd/lp 12.98/15.98 SPACE VACATION "Heart Attack" (self-released) lp 8.98 SPIRITUALIZED "Sweet Heart, Sweet Light" (Fat Possum) cd/2lp 13.98/19.98 SPOERRI AND BETHA SARASIN, BRUNO "AX+BY+CZ+D=0 (aka Kunst Am Computer)" (Dead-Cert) lp 26.00 STEREOLAB "Mars Audiac Quintet" (1972) 2lp 25.00 STEREOLAB "Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements" (1972) 2lp 25.00 SURVIVE "s/t" (Light Lodge) 10" 10.98 T-REX "Tanx" (Fat Possum) lp 14.98 TALK TALK "Colour of Spring" (Parlophone) lp 44.00 TASTE OF DECAY "1984-1986" (Mannequin) cd 17.98 TENDERIZOR "Touch The Sword" (SickSickSick) lp 9.98 THOMAS, HENRY "Bull Doze Blues" (Mississippi / Little Axe) lp 13.98 UGLY CUSTARD "s/t" (Relics) cd/lp 17.98/17.98 ULAAN MARKHOR "s/t" (Soft Abuse) cd/lp 11.98/15.98 ULVER "Childhood's End" (K-Scope) cd 17.98 UTON "Echoes In The Wonderland" (DNT) lp 17.98 V/A "Eat The Dream: Gnawa Music From Essaouira" (Sublime Frequencies) lp 21.00 V/A "Wizzz Volume 1" (Born Bad) lp 21.00 V/A "WTNG 89.9 FM: Solid Bronze" (Numero) cd 11.98 VERGE "Sex & Violence" (Descending Towards Damnation) cd 10.98 VOCODER "Cuadro Sinoptico" (Dark Entries) 12" 11.98 VOWELS "Hooves, Leaves & the Death / As December Nightingales" (Sun & Moon) cd 13.98 WET HAIR "Spill Into Atmosphere" (De Stijl) lp 19.98 WHEELS, THE "Road Block" (Big Beat) cd 14.98 WHITE, EMILY JANE "Dark Undercoat" (Important) cd/lp 12.98/12.98 WHITE, EMILY JANE "Victorian America" (Talitres) 2lp 24.00 WHITE, JACK "Blunderbuss" (Columbia) lp 27.00 WICKED LADY "Psychotic Overkill" (Guerssen) cd 17.98 WINO & CONNY OCHS "Heavy Kingdom" (Exile On Mainstream) cd 16.98 WITCH MOUNTAIN "Cauldron Of The Wild" (Profound Lore) cd WOUNDED KINGS, THE "Embrace Of The Narrow House" (Eyes Like Snow) cd 17.98 YOUNG, LARRY "Larry Young's Fuel / Spaceball" (Arista) cd 19.98 YOUNG, NEIL "Americana" (Reprise) cd 13.98 YOUNGS, RICHARD "Amaranthine" (Mie) lp 25.00
For some strange reason this is the first record we've reviewed by Emily Jane White, but Ode To Sentience most definitely has us smitten, and also has us wondering how it is we're only discovering her now. The sound here is a gorgeous sonic concoction, equal parts classic Americana, brooding torch song and dark psychedelick folk, her voice mesmerizing and magical, a lush and velvety croon, powerful and throaty, with a tone that's rich and lustrous, presented way up in the mix, wreathed in just a smattering of reverb, the kind of voice that has you realizing the music is really only secondary, that old 'singing the phonebook' adage comes to mind, and when her vox are multitracked and she harmonizes with herself, it's downright divine.
We've seen White compared to Chan Marshall from Cat Power, and Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star. Kate Bush of course, but we also hear less obvious comparisons, one that really struck us was David Eugene Edwards of Sixteen Horsepower and Woven Hand, they have a similar phrasing, and seem drawn to the same sort of melodies and progressions. But unlike Edwards' music, which tends to be harrowing and apocalyptic, White's songs are definitely shot through with a little sunshine, whether it's a playful bit of slippery slide guitar or some surfy twang, that said, ode is definitely a dark record, sonically and lyrically. Just check out the opener, "Oh Katherine", which we find ourselves playing over and over, a lush bit of Appalachia, wreathed in moaning mournful cellos and soaring lyrical violin, one of the prettiest songs we've heard in ages. And while "The Cliff" is a little bit jaunty, it's also about someone leaping to their death (literally or metaphorically it's hard to say), a strange country folk love song, appropriately doomed, but musically hopeful, that maybe just, something else waits at the end of that interminable fall. "Black Silk" is another gorgeous lush brooder, dense tangles of steel string buzz, wreathed in clouds of cymbal shimmer, a darkly dirgey ballad that manages to be impossibly catchy without being the least bit cloying.
And so it goes, each and every song a dark softly psychedelic folk gem, lush twang flecked balladry that manages to fuse classic country/bluegrass tradition with a more modern doomfolk songsmithery, into something we can't seem to stop listening to. Lovely stuff for sure. And we'll definitely be tracking down the two records we missed as well...
A holy proto-metal relic here, folks. This is the first of two volumes (vol. 2, modestly titled Psychotic Overkill, we'll review next time) collecting the recorded output circa 1969-1972 of this heavy riffing underground UK unit, well known in the annals of hard psych fuzzarama. A classic power trio, featuring Martin Weaver (later of the Dark) on guitar, along with Bob Jefferies on bass and "Mad" Dick Smith on drums, Wicked Lady had a rep for being LOUD and causing violence. No surprise that Wicked Lady's axeman stateth in the liner notes that their fans were either partially deaf people or bikers! Or both!
Their sound was based on the basic British blues rock of the day, a la Cream, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, and so forth, with melodic vocals and a generally sad vibe, their songs sometimes relatively tame hippie popsike seeming - at first - before Weaver would unleash the hellish wah wah fuzz freakouts that whipped those poor deafened bikers into such a state.
Groovy, lumbering, loping, amped up and drugged out, Wicked Lady is the real deal, dated to us now, perhaps, but quite charming. You can't argue, ferinstance, with how after a gentle, folky beginning, the track "War Cloud" morphs from melodic to martial, a jackbooted march with wild soloing o'er top, kinda as if Trad Gras Och Stenar went (proto-)metal� such fuzz guitar jamming excess is to be found throughout, like Wicked Lady were the Earthless of their day.
The eight tracks found here (DIY recorded in the band's dingy rehearsal space, 'cuz they were about playing live, not making records, but wanted to remember how the songs went!) are all gonna be of interest to those into the likes of Randy Holden's Population II, High Tide, Stray, '70s Pentagram, Iron Claw, T2, Negative Space, and other obscure late sixties / early seventies purveyors of heavy psychedelic riff rock. This is the first time Wicked Lady's music has been legitimately released on cd (and Guerssen has pressed vinyl too, which hopefully we'll have soon), with the participation of Martin Weaver himself, who contributes liner notes, telling the whole Wicked Lady story - and he's got some stories. Though he does dispel the rumor that he broke a window and stole his first guitar - instead, apparently, he built it himself. Full lyrics are also included in the booklet.
As an earlier, bootleg edition of this on the cult Kissing Spell label put it in a back cover blurb: "60 Minutes Of Wah Wah Hell"!
Latest collection of minimal Americana doom-pop slowcore from this Chicago trio, whose music seems more faded and ethereal with every record, as if their music was an old weathered photograph, colors and shapes becoming less and less distinct as the years pass, everything fuzzy around the edges, a world of washed out ghostly memories, The World Is A House On Fire the perfect soundtrack.
Spidery echo drenched twang, shuffling barely there percussion, softly crooned vox, and whirling Mellotron like organ whir, all held together by sinewy basslines and a gauzy cloud of smeared shimmer, dark and contemplative, haunting and otherworldly. Each track here is a shuffling smolder, a hazy sonic drift rife with echoey vapor trails, at times reminding us of Talk Talk, the same sort of hushed delicate minimalism, a wistful dream pop rendered in washed out greys and faded blacks, an end of the world threnody. So lovely.
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!! ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*
