Ok, look. Drone records are hard to review. They're drones. Some are better than others (dronier?) but what do you say to make that case? Especially when, in trying to do so, your mind is being lulled and numbed and otherwise not wanting to think and type thoughts. You want to join with the drone, not describe and analyze it. So, if we say that this collaboration between Strings of Consciousness and Angel is a damn good drone record, then maybe you should just take our word for it, whaddya say? Or let the glowing green, desolate atmospheric artwork of Seldon Hunt, in which this is housed, convince you. Or the folks involved - Angel, who have other albums we've recommended, is in part the project of Ilpo Vaisanen of Pan Sonic, while the experimental ensemble Strings Of Consciousness includes French laptopper Philippe Petit who runs the Bip-Hop label (not to be confused with the insane tightrope walking Philippe Petit from the documentary Man On A Wire!).
But of course you want further details. Well... there's two tracks here. Long ones, of course. 22:03 and 18:41. The first track is the more spacious, slowly shimmering drone piece, featuring the cello of Iceland's Hildur Gudnadottir, along with other strings - harp, double bass, guitars... plus harmonium, accordion, and the added abstraction of electronics, effects, and oscillators. Gentle rhythms manifest, and melodies seep in. It builds into an ominous physical presence, the volume increasing, buzzing smoothly like a swarm of non-so-angry bees before the end. Quite glorious.
The second track seems as layered and organic, but more intimate. Instead of chamber strings, the "acoustic" element is limited to accordion and resonating Tibetan bowls. Along with guitars... and again plenty of electronics and effects. More "crinkly" and clanky than the first track, with mysterious rattle and rustle amidst a mix of soothing electronic washes and rather more corroded-sounding digitalized drones. But like we said, we're to busy being mesmerized by this music to really break it all down for you. We just know, we like it!
Recommended, either on cd, released domestically by Important (which allows for uninterrupted drone consumption), or on vinyl, an import on the Conspiracy label (which of course requires the listener to assist in flipping from one side to the next).
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In a dream, you've gotten yourself lost in an endless cavern... you've been curiously wandering in the darkness, down down into the earth, for a long long time. When you stop to rest, you realize that the silence that had surrounded you is different now. You think you can hear music... drifting from someplace deeper in the darkness. Drifting, droning, dark, dark, dark... that's this music, the reverberant, cavernous, quiet sounds of The Stumps. Sleepy and creepy at the same time. You move closer, and The Stumps get louder. Troglodytic thud and rumble begins to build. That's the beauty of this album, these tracks are part whale call mystery, part trashy crashy garage rock clangor. Ambient eeriness flows into plodding free rock chaos, with heavy distortion blanketing all. The twelve and a half minute untitled track number 5 (none have titles, as far as we can tell) is all about that drone-drift, whilst track 7, for instance, rouses itself to a spaced-out, slow-motion spasm of psychedelic guitar grind-gunk and percussive splatter-clatter.
The Stumps trio of drummer James Kirk (Sandoz Lab Technicians, Gate, With Throats As Fine As Needles), bassist Stephen Clover (Seht), and guitarist Antony Milton (Mrtyu, AM, Nether Dawn, etc.) is a New Zealand underground supergroup, by the way. No wonder they're so easily so shambolic, somnolent, and sinister sounding... Outside of their own cd-r littered island realm, we couldn't compare this to much else besides, maybe, Fushitsusha.
Welcome to the cavern, welcome to the dream.
Don't laugh. I didn't think I (Allan) liked Styx, either. But these four early Styx albums, now reissued as one handy double-cd, are actually pretty cool... I'm not saying they're not at all cheesy (they are) but at least these records predate the era of mega-AOR-stardom after Tommy Shaw joined the band -- this was long before "Come Sail Away". This is Styx as America's answer to British prog-rockers like Yes. There's definitely a lot of Yes-isms here, but also Styx, chamelon-like, take on aspects of all sorts of other rockers of the era too, bringing in Southern/boogie rock like Foghat, classical prog like ELP, and grandiose proto-metal like Uriah Heep. Put most basically, this early Styx was basically a blend of the James Gang and Yes, if you can imagine that! Their four albums recorded for the Wooden Nickel label (1972's Styx, 1973's Styx II, 1973's The Serpent Is Rising, and 1974's Man Of Miracles) were indeed proto-Pomp Rock, but heavy on the rock. So if you're into '70s hard rock, you should investigate, despite the Styx stigma. Of the 35 tracks here, you're gonna find some faves. Yeah, you'll find their first hit "Lady" here, and a rock version of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" but also some kick ass, almost metal tunes like "Witch Wolf", "Southern Woman" and the bombastic "Young Man". Plus some decent prog epics (mostly from the pen of Dennis DeYoung) and even random weirdness like their frenetic cover of the Knickerbockers' 1966 garage rock nugget "Lies" and even an experimental musique concrete piece ("Street Collage") found on their first album. Packaged with detailed liner notes and original album cover art in the 16-page cd booklet, this double cd set could make a nice, if for most of us, unusual purchase... it did for me.
And in case you're a diehard Styx fan reading this, firstly we apologize for implying that there's anything wrong with liking Styx in the first place, and secondly FYI there's a bonus track on here, "Unfinished Song", the b-side to "Young Man".
Wow!!! A few years ago, we were totally blown away by a compilation put out by Smithsonian Folkways called Indonesian Guitars, which among many amazing tracks happened to feature a song called "Fajar Di Atas Awan" by Irwansyah Harahap. It was of that disc's highlights, with haunting female and male vocal harmonies, lilting acoustic guitar, sruti box drones and cymbals. What we didn't know was that Harahap and singer Rithaony Hutajulu, both ethnomusicology professors at the University of North Sumatra, were the main composers and singers for a larger group of musicians and performers called Suarasama, and that song was the title track of THIS incredibly beautiful, blissful record by Suarasama, a 1997 live recording, now released for the first time in the U.S. by the fine folks at Drag City. We are so stoked, what a wonderful surprise this is.
Formed in 1995, Suarasama's musical influences are widely diverse, creating contemporary music based on vartious aesthetic and conceptual aspects of Middle Eastern, Indian, Sufi Pakistani, Eastern European, Southeast Asian as well as North Sumatra Batak and Malay traditional music. But the results are very far from academic. Instead the music is infused with a hermetic introspective devotional quality that seduces the listener with its soft trance-like rhythms and haunting vocal mantras. Persian and Indian percussion of tablas and defs meld with deft finger-picked guitar and gambus improvisations and dueling vocal harmonies that propel circularly forward in hypnotically beautiful interweavings. Meditative and organic, full of levitation-inducing majesty. For any devotee of raga folk, Masaki Batoh, Six Organs, Daniel Higgs, L, Robbie Basho, Sandy Bull, Congregacion, The Habibiyya, Malachi, Pandit Pran Nath, The Trees Community, or Bruce Palmer, this is absolutely essential!!
The sun is warm, the sun lights the way, the sun brings life... what's in a name? Well, it's certainly no misnomer for this group. It'll Be The Same is the second album from Sun, not to be confused with SUNNO))), although these guys are also a duo (Oren Ambarchi and Chris Townsend) and half of 'em (Mr. Ambarchi) have collaborated with SUNNO))) in the past. This Sun isn't from Southern Lord, but from the southern hemisphere (Australia), and play purely pop music, slow and soft and hushed but nothing doomy or blackened at all... some gentle droniness certainly does creep in, experimental glitch techniques n' textures that are of course what we might expect from Oren Ambarchi, who after all is known for solo albums along those lines (in fact, there's a great new one by him, actually on Southern Lord, reviewed on this list too). There are layers of static and field recordings (Townsend's children's voices, perhaps?) that along with Oren and Chris's own voices and guitar strums are formed into six moodily relaxed, truly sun-dappled, electro-acoustic folky-pop songs... a calm, cryptically detailed setting for lovely, wistful vocals that remind us of the Skygreen Leopards' Glenn Donaldson and Richard Youngs.
We loved Sun's first self-titled album (and extra disc of experimental remixes) back in 2003, and are happy to finally hear this excellent follow-up!
This record is fucked. Maybe you're thinking that "fucked" is one of the best compliments we can offer for a record. But seriously, this record is fucked-up. The Sun City Girls have long been known for the devilish personas which adopted liberally from the South East Asian pop and Bollywood scores. Slowly, erratic Beat poetry, bizarrely theatrical ideas, and uncomfortable experiments began to creep into their recordings. Jacks Creek was one of the records that had long been reviled as one of the Sun City Girl's biggest red flags for a serious lack of quality control. Loosely, a 'hillbilly' album, Jack's Creek begins with the Goucher and the Bishop Brothers muttering in badly rendered, redneck drawls about the terrible odor coming from an Indian burial mound somewhere nearby. For 10 minutes three men groans and whisper their fears, for one of the more convoluted extracts from the Sun City Girls catalogue. Eventually, a back-porch improv jam of warble and strum on harmonica, banjo, and voice brings this track to a conclusion, leaving more questions than answers. The hobo freak-folk of Jacks Creek with more hoots, false starts, and faux-drunk dialogue than actual songs, would certainly turn off anybody looking for an entire album of dramatic psych-punk ecstasy a la Torch Of The Mystics (although a few meandering gems like "Fact The Business" work their way into Jacks Creek). Like we said, this record is fucked.
Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls has been the curator of many of the finest Ennio Morricone collections, including the brilliant compilation on Ipecac Crime & Dissonance, despite the John Zorn written liner notes that seemed to suggest that Mike Patton had done the compiling. Needless to say, it makes a lot of sense for the Sun City Girls to find their way into the realm of the soundtrack, given Alan Bishop's love of Morricone; and Juggernaut is one of those Sun City Girls soundtracks. While this soundtrack was originally released on vinyl through Abduction back in 1994, the corresponding film by Mark Roman Bodnar and Kyrill Kazemirovitch Protsenko had never been officially released. That said, it did make an appearance at an Italian film festival in 1997; so, it probably is an actual film, and not some fiction propagated as a strange in-joke by the Sun City Girls. But then again...
Anyway, Juggernaut is a pretty good Sun City Girls album. The band had always been a difficult proposition, as they had thrown every idea (from the great notions of smashing Southeast Asian pop melodies with SoCal skate punk energy to the better-in-theory modes of junkyard gamelan via free jazz) at the audience and let them sort out the mess. Juggernaut follows suit, as an entirely instrumental album with the highlights giving nods to the classic SCG album Torch of the Mystics through lysergic guitar solos splattered across acid-punk jams that could easily ground the work of early Flaming Lips or Thinking Fellers, if those bands were way more fucked up. The semi-focused, stoned ritualism that makes up the rest of the album could have had some atmospheric purpose in the original film although they're not out of character for any given Sun City Girls album.
So the story goes that a young Italian director named Antonio Pomola got in touch with the Sun City Girls in 1993 to score a film about a giant pre-historic flying reptile terrorizing a 19th Century Native American tribe somewhere in the Midwest. According to the Girls, the film was never completed; and the soundtrack is the only document from the film's creative genesis. There doesn't appear to be any further information about the career or even existence to this Pomola character, beyond the fact that the Sun City Girls composed this soundtrack of fragmented interludes, raga instrumentals, and weirdo atmospherics. Needless to say, the Girls self-released this soundtrack in 1994 on vinyl; only to have it disappear from circulation in quick fashion.
Jump a dozen years into the future, and the soundtrack is available again at last with a cd pressing. Composed immediately after their Juggernaut soundtrack (reviewed elsewhere on this list), the Sun City Girls offered a series of edited fragments, which mostly touch on a psychedelic ritualism which foreshadows the Finnish free-folk splatter of Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat, and Kuupuu. Faux-indian raga blues drifts into lumbering plods for plenty of chicken scratch guitar noodles, free-jazz drum stumblings, and glossalaic vocals. At times, the Bishop brothers and Charlie Gocher tease us with a glimpse of their mutant songwriting talents; but more often than not, it's sinister atmospheres for gongs, Tibetan horns, and amorphous guitar pluckery.
So, we already put this on our special all-Torch Of The Mystics in-between list last week, because we just couldn't wait to list it, and here it is again, a no-shit, straight to the top Record Of The Week. An absolute must-buy, a record that DESPERATELY needed to be reissued (along with almost all 10,000 other Sun City Girls records, certain crazy people would argue). So here it is on both cd and vinyl! And here's the expanded, in-depth review we promised...
So what to say about this fuckin' record? Originally recorded in 1988 during a time when the Bishop brothers and Charles Gocher had been making much more overtly subversive work. 1987's Horse Cock Phepner (an album that could use this reissue treatment, by the way) experimented with drug-addled spoken word, hypno-percussive vulgarity-ridden tributes to Nancy Reagan, and Urinals-esque minimalist noise-punk. This makes sense given the Bishop brothers' musical upbringing in the early '80s Arizona punk and hardcore world. But the recordings sessions that would become Torch of the Mystics had such a different result. Like we mentioned last week, due in large part to the success of labels like Bishop's Sublime Frequencies, in making the SCG's third world influences more familiar to us, this record does get the "most accessible" label, maybe even more than it seemed originally. It's still fantastically out-there, but yeah, compared to other Sun City Girls output before and after this record, this is downright radio friendly.
It's hard to talk about records that are this fantastic, we don't really have words that can do it justice. Right from the first snare crack of opener "Blue Mamba", it's impossible not to get sucked into another world. The first notes of the bass line immediately floor us, then the whole band comes in, with droll vocals not even really saying coherent words over some sort of desert-scorched melody, part Sahara and part Sonoran. "Tarmac 23" is up next, a total outsider improvised psych freak-out, the guitar line an off-kilter loop, Gocher's drumming managing to keep the whole thing together. "Esoterica Of Abyssynia" and "Space Prophet Dogon" are, of course, the masterpieces of this record. "Esoterica" has a twisting and looping guitar line like something John Fahey would play if he studied under the tutelage of Ravi Shankar, and also owned a distortion pedal. "Space Prophet Dogon" is one of those instances that makes us all go full Andee and say "perhaps THEE greatest song EVER!" Seriously, without trying to sound too over-the-top hyperbolic, "Space Prophet Dogon" (later covered by the Grails) is one of those songs that should be played at funerals. A spiritual, otherworldly lick with its roots somewhere in Egypt or maybe a Moroccan hash cafe, but in true Sun City Girls fashion, twisted and warped to their liking. The longest song on the record (a scant 7 minutes) with the last 2 and a half completely improvised, and perhaps the most beautiful part, a bleary-eyed psych trip. This record would be totally worth it if it just played this song 11 times, trust us. But there's so much more! "Cafe Batik", "The Flower", "Papa Legba", and "Burial In The Sky" all follow in the footsteps of "Tarmac 23", improvised, warped, outsider-jazz-raga-middle eastern psych-folk numbers with Gocher's percussive mastery and Alan Bishop's sung/shouted vocals taking front row. "The Shining Path" could be a lost track off a Morricone soundtrack, a whistle-and-acoustic guitar number with that catchy and haunting melody line sung over it. "Radar 1941" is like the Ventures on thorazine, a slowed down, chewed up and spit-out attempt at surfy skronk. Like a foreshadowing of his solo career, "The Vinegar Stroke" is a classic Sir Richard Bishop piece, a masterfully played acoustic guitar track that feels like it's pulling inspiration from 5 different musical styles at once.
In short, (ha!) Torch Of The Mystics is an album that is from both everywhere and nowhere. It constantly plays with things you've maybe heard, but can't quite recall. It's at once high and low brow, mimicking some criminally underheard guitarist in the Sahal, or a drunkard trying to recite the Rigveda from memory. The babbling of Charles and Alan are in either some unknown foreign language or complete gibberish, perhaps playing with some sort of postmodern idea of Western cultural appropriation and our often naive and hamfisted takes on "world" music, or maybe they were just high and fucking around.
An utter masterpiece, a no-brainer must-have piece of every music collection.
In recent months, we've seen several interestin' Sun City Girls reissues come out on cd via the Abduction label, like such previously vinyl-only rarities as the (supposed) soundtrack recordings to Piasa The Devourer Of Men, Dulce, and Juggernaut. Along with the shaggy dog hillbilly joke that is Jacks Creek. So fans of the now sadly defunct Sun City Girls, that cultish, psych-punk, faux-ethnic, WTF? trio, have had some welcome listening of late. However, this new disc, a collection (volume one!) of Sun City Girls singles, has us the most excited yet. That's cause these nine tracks, mostly released as singles on the Majora label back in the day, were actually all recorded during the same sessions that resulted in the acclaimed 1989 SCG album Torch Of The Mystics. That album, now out of print, is almost universally regarded as the band's best, and most popular. We'd agree, it's definitely the unanimous fave here at AQ (well, along with the equally long gone 330,003 Crossdressers From Beyond The Rig Veda). Too bad Torch Of The Mystics is out of print!! But of course that makes these tracks, cousins to those on Torch, all the more covetable!
Apparently, originally Torch was meant to be a double LP, and most of these tracks were instrumentals that would have been sequenced in amongst the songs that appeared on the final version of Torch. Plans for a double LP were eventually scrapped, and much of the extra material was then released by Majora on the You're Never Alone With A Cigarette 7" and Three Fake Female Orgasms 2x7". However, three of the tracks here are previously unreleased studio recordings, and another track, "The Fine-Tuned Machines Of Lemuria", is restored to its full 12 minute length for the first time (having been edited down for 7" release).
On of the reasons we (and everybody) likes Torch so much is that the songs, sounding much like some sort of alien, Southeast Asian surf rock, were unhindered by the unhinged eccentric excesses that make so many other, more confusional SCG recordings something of an acquired taste. Their unique take on "world music" was at its most accessible on Torch, with some of their most memorable, melodic moments and evocative atmospheres. You're Never Alone..., while not quite Torch part II, is certainly in that ballpark, with the ringing, exotic electric guitar skree of Richard Bishop taking center stage on much of this, ably supported by the drums and percussion of Charles Gocher and the bass playing of Alan Bishop (with sundry other, often ethnic, instrumentation from all). There's glorious folky riffing and moody improvs and plenty of prime SCG wonderful weirdness. Definitely an essential disc for all SCG fans!!
We thought that the Dutch label Calibre had taken over the task of reissuing ESP-Disk classics, but for some reason they've licensed some of the titles to the Italian label Get Back, who like to release cds in little cardboard lp-styled sleeves. Anyway, either way, we're glad that this album is back in the racks. One of our favorite of the many Sun Ra documents, this recording dates from December 1973, showcasing Sun Ra's amazing early '70s synth-madness and the Arkestra's jazz-funk spaced-out-chants (like the version found here of the classic "Space Is The Place"). The turbulent cosmic journey of the Comet Kohutek is rendered in sound with Sun Ra's arsenal of keyboard electronics, and celebrated with the space-positive grooves of the rest of the band. Great stuff!
Hard to resist a Sun Ra record with a title like that, eh? And drum machine, too! The late, great, interplanetary legend of Afro-cosmic jazz and his band recorded this newly reissued album live on planet Earth (precise location: Milan, Italy) back in 1978, at the height of disco fever. But of course it ain't really disco!! Instead it's far out free jazz grooviness, full of futuristic synth freakouts and even tinny, metronomic drum machine shuffle. All of which you'll find on the worth the price of admission alone 26 minute title track, which also incorporates the Arkestra's signature "Space Is The Place" chant at one point. Nor does this set stint on screaming horns and energetic battery. Or for that matter mellow, melodic moodiness. Highlights are many, among them the gurgling chaos and solar sax blurt of "Sun Of The Cosmos", and the eerie, glistening, jittering "Dance Of The Cosmo Aliens".
Featuring the lineup of John Gilmore (tenor sax, drums, voclas), June Tyson (vocals), Michael Ray (trumpet, vocals), Luqman Ali (drums, vocals) and last but not least Sun Ra himself (piano, organ, Moog synth, rhythm machine, vocals), this expanded double cd reissue of Disco 3000 is definitely cause for rejoicing amongst Sun Ra (and cosmo alien) fans. Over two hours total, this includes the original three tracks from the '78 vinyl release along with NINE more bonus tracks taken from the thankfully well-preserved tapes of the same performance, is packaged in a handsome trifold digpack, and comes with a cd booklet with photos, graphics, and liner notes by trumpeter Michael Ray, who had just hooked up with Sun Ra not long before this recording took place. His mind is still blown! Share something of his experience here...
Originally intended for release on the Impulse jazz label 27 years ago, but not available until now! The liner notes explain the story of Sun Ra's brief major label experience (so brief that it resulted in the burial of these recordings). But now, like lost treasures excavated from an ancient tomb (or in this case, the El Saturn vaults), they have returned to our world, and jazz/Sun Ra fans should be thankful. Some song titles, some quite appropriate to the preceeding archeological analogy (heck, they sound like titles from a Nile record!): "The Order Of The Pharaonic Jesters", "The Embassy Of the Living God", "The Eternal Sphynx", "Thoughts Under A Dark Blue Light"... The material on these two discs ranges from the quite lovely to the exceedingly "out". Just expose your ears the opening electronic keyboard attack of "Crystal Spears". Heavy duty Sun Ra, lost treasure indeed!
Now (again) available on vinyl! Here's what we wrote about the cd reissue that came out three years ago: an exceedingly rare 1978 Sun Ra LP, apparently a fave with acid jazz djs, if they could find a copy of the original lp on the Philly Jazz "micro-label". Five spacey, gorgeous tracks. From the slow, achingly beautiful opening title track, to the space-funk of "Where The Pathways Meet", to the cosmic coctail jazz of "Twin Stars of Thence", and to the final, magnificent, eerie "There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)", with the whispered and chanted voices of Ra, June Tyson, and others imparting unintelligible ancient wisdom, this is a fantastic disc. Don't fear the presence of one "Disco Kid" on guitar, this is far from being cheesy or dated disco dancefloor material. A true "kosmigroove" find, one that of course Sun Ra fans, but also '70s Miles Davis fans, will absolutely love.
Just the Sun Ra album to make your friends go, "what the bleep bloop is that? (bleep bloop)". That's 'cause the cosmic-Afro-jazz maestro's space age synthesizer extemporaneity is fully one-fourth (or much more!) of the soundfield, this being the product of an unusual quartet lineup (Sun Ra: piano, organ, Moog synth, rhythm machine, vocals, John Gilmore: tenor sax, drums, vocals, Luqman Ali: drums, vocals, Michael Ray: trumpet, vocals), So, want some way-out Sun Ra action? Check this out!
The groaning low-end synth that starts disc one, track one ("Saturn Research") should immediately get your attention. And by track two, "Constellation", Ra & Co. have gotten into a groove worthy of the Star Wars cantina... Throughout, all sorts of warped electronic sounds are conjured by Ra's keyboards, with his primitive drum machine occasionally also augmenting the beats of the live drummer in the mix.
This is the follow up Disco 3000, highlighted here a few weeks ago, and if you liked that, you'll like this too. If anything it's possessed of even more mystery and otherworldliness (as only Sun Ra can deliver, in the realm of jazz or elsewhere). Again, as with Art Yard's Disco 3000 reissue, this is an expanded double cd edition (13 tracks, 96 minutes), restoring much previously unreleased music from the original performance tapes recorded on tour in Italy in 1978, with this unique four-piece mini-Arkestra.
Like we said, this is laced with lots of spooky electronic drone and bleepage, but of course as "out" as it gets, being a Sun Ra record there's a lot of jazz tradition to it too, with Ra getting melodic on the piano, and featuring plenty of gorgeous sax soloing from Gilmore, though he gets freaky with it too. Plus there's scaled-down versions of some of the Arkestra's famous space-positive chants -- and a rather more negative chant as well: "The Truth About Planet Earth... Is A Bad Truth!" They sound inexplicably happy chanting that one, maybe 'cause they have travel plans to other planets anyway -- the next track after it is "Space Is The Place".
There's certainly no shortage of Sun Ra reissues, the idiosyncratic bandleader recorded a LOT of stuff over his long career, and while we try to review as many of 'em as we can, we can't review 'em all... and don't really need to, as you can't go too wrong with any of 'em, if you appreciate Ra's spacey Afrocentric jazz in general, especially the way his music is often both outside and inside at the same time. But when a Ra reissue comes along that starts off with an otherworldly 18 minute Mini-Moog solo from the man himself, then that's one that we know we've GOT to list. "Space Probe" is the track in question, an apt title indeed, recorded circa 1969, right about when Sun Ra received a prototype model from Robert Moog, for testing purposes. Test it he did!! So this is a historic recording, and we can't help but quote what it says here about how "Moog always claimed afterwards that he never understood exactly where some of those sounds came from - suspecting he [Sun Ra] might have modified the instrument in some way."
Elsewhere on this disc, regular Sun Ra sidemen Marshall Allen (flute) and John Gilmore (bass clarinet) appear, along with James Jacson (log drum), Nimrod Hunt (hand drum) and Thea Barbara (wordless, operatic vocals), with material from sessions dating to the early '60s; a small, spare ensemble playing "jazz" that has to go in quotes. "Sun Ra music" is more like it. And it's intergalactic, atmospheric, avant garde groove (and anti-groove) unlike much else in this universe. Some of the tracks appeared on the 1974 Saturn label vinyl release, Space Probe, others are previously unissued takes.
Worth it for "Space Probe" alone, which combines '50s sci-fi film sound effects with proto-techno pulsations, so very different from the relaxed wooden rhythms and flute flutter of the 13+ minute "The Conversation Of J.P.", another of this disc's highlights.
Nicely done Art Yard reissue as always, in a slim trifold digipack with liner notes.
Strange is right! And it's not just the strings. This 1966 recording by out-jazz pioneer Sun Ra and his adventurous Astro Infinity Arkestra is strange all over. This could SO totally be a current day improv psych cd-r from some of our Finnish friends, for instance... if it weren't recorded 40 years ago by one of the foremost geniuses of 20th century American jazz (and Afro-Outer-Space art). The idea here is that alongside the horns and flutes and bass all the usual instrumentation of the Arkestra, they're improvising on a collection of completely unfamiliar instruments -- the sundry "strange strings" of the title. Odd, exotic stringed instruments possibly including: Chinese lute, "moon-guitar" (?), mandolin, banjo, koto, bandura, ukelin (a zither type instrument), and others yet to be identified. Directed only by loose gestures from Sun Ra, the band expresses themselves freely on these strange strings... and the results must rank among the weirdest and most abstract sounds in Sun Ra's vast catalog, an unhinged tangle of sputtering pluckery and string-scrape. In addition, some sort of percussion adds thunderous rumbling metallic drones (this is presumably the "lightning drum" with which Ra is also credited, along with electronic piano). It could be a sheet of metal, or even a metal musical sculpture, as this reissue's extensive and investigative liner notes postulate. Another sonic element making the proceedings even stranger is the wordless, otherworldly "space vocal" of Art Jenkins aka Thlan Aldridge.
There's three tracks here from the rare original Saturn-label release, plus a fourth bonus cut. "Worlds Approaching" starts things off with a 10+ minutes of woozy Wurlitzer, clonky horn burble, and percussive clatter. Then the shambolic strange strings orgy begins with "Strings Strange" (12:47) and continues through to the epic "Strange Strange" (20:53). Log drums pulse beneath the reverbed apeshit freeform freakout of strings, space vocals, and metallic crashes.
And, after all that, there's the ten and a half minute bonus track. Which believe it or not, is probably the strangest (there's that word again) thing on here! It's called "Door Squeak" and YES that's right, it's actually Sun Ra "playing" a squeaky, creaky door. Which is exactly what it so spookily sounds like. Pretty cool we think, a nice simple coda to the preceding mayhem, celebrating a pure love of sound, whatever the source, and its mysterious power over our imaginations.
Good grief, it's astonishing that even with so many Sun Ra reissues already out, there's STILL amazing stuff like this to be unearthed.
Any one lucky enough to visit hypnorockers Circle in Finland, besides being showered with hospitality and crazy adventures, hockey games, private concerts, lots of record shopping, reindeer dinners and Finnish pizza, also is quite likely to be invited to record with the band, as they seem to be in a constant state of ready-to-record-ness, as our very own Andee can attest to: just check http://www.tUMULt.net to hear Jaappollot, the results of several sessions he shared with the boys in Circle!
Seems a similar thing happened to abstract free rock collective Sunburned Hand Of The Man when they were in Finland, and it's hard to imagine a better match. Sunburned seems to have lured Circle back into the murky woods, for long languorous stretches of slow burning psychedelia. The metallic sheen of recent releases has been rusted and caked with mud and old dried branches, the result a trancelike folk flecked tribal krautrock, the perfect mix of what we like best about both bands.�
The sound on first listen is like some sort of�alien world music, with dense, but laid back�tribal drumming, swirling serpentine guitar lines,�whispered chanted vocals, all wrapped in a cavernous production, making the tracks sound warm and wide open, expansive and endless, there is clatter and clang, but for the most part it's smeared and blurred, buried in sonic murk, wrapped around abstract krautrock rhythms and chunks of angular guitar riffage. Some of the tracks get wild and chaotic, but even then, the sound is still restrained, not jagged or harsh, more swirling and washed out.�
One of our favorite tracks ever, by maybe either band, is the super hypnotic�"Heinavelho", another growling ambient sprawl, but strangely rhythmic and musical, still�murky and muddy and super hypnotic, but with ultra subtle�repetitively strummed guitars, held in check by martial drum rolls and little squalls of brushed snares, eventually building to an FX drenched gothy cabaret crawl, all moody and drunken, lurching and downtuned, staggering through a thick cloud of chirping bleeps and bloops and dense swells of rumble and shimmer.�
Fans of either band will definitely dig, and a good gateway for anyone into one, but not yet so into the other...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Out of the blue, this slab of heaviness is now available on vinyl! A real swank package with new artwork courtesy of the UK's Dirter. Here's our review of the original cd release from 2001:
The world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band oozes forth with their second album. Some might question if there was more to be accomplished in their emulation of the glacial "power ambient drone" metal practiced by Earth, but this album should quell any skeptics -- it's slower and lower and sets yet another standard for heaviness. Thus, probably an essential addition to the collections of AQ's extreme doom fanatic patrons! And this time the boys in Sunn go beyond their obvious Earth worship to acknowledge another influence: one of the four lengthy tracks found here is a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Recommended.
Yet again, proving that you haven't really owned a Sunn 0))) record until you've bought it at least twice, preferably three times, here comes two more blasts from the dark side of the doom, what many consider to be Sunn 0)))'s finest moments, their debut, The GrimmRobe Demos, and record number three, Flight Of The Behemoth! Both expanded with over the top new packaging, gorgeous Japanese style mini lp gatefold style cd sleeves, inserts, printed inner sleeves, but most importantly a whole disc of unreleased material!!
The GrimmRobe Demos was the first most of us had ever heard of this supposed Earth tribute band, their debut disc in a cardboard sleeve, wrapped in a black trash bag silkscreened with the Sunn 0))) logo in metallic gold, the sound a filthier, sludgier version of Earth's classic 2 album. We were in doomdirgedeathdrone nirvana. And still are. After a million Sunn 0))) wannabes, the GrimmRobe Demos still sound as heavy and sludge-y and as gloriously grim as ever.
The packaging is of course fantastic, a super thick gatefold mini lp style sleeve, printed in that deep blue and silver, inside a HUGE booklet affixed to the front, with extensive liner notes, in English and Japanese, including a looooong essay, Ode To The Grimmrobe, by Seldon Hunt. Each disc is in a plastic sleeve housed in a full color printed sleeve, the disc proper has more images like those inside the gatefold, while the bonus disc has a flyer and photos from the live show within. So yeah, Sunn 0))) performing live, back in 1999, when they were still an opening act (opening for Angel Rot, who?), 25 + minutes of crumbling low end destruction, gritty and grimy and filthy, a massive roiling morass of downtuned guitar rumble and shimmering feedback, gorgeous and of course brutal, and capturing Sunn 0))) near the beginning. Fans will of course want this, the packaging, the essay, the killer live show, but just like Flight Of The Behemoth, folks who missed out on the GrimmRobe Demos the first time around, should must definitely rectify that situation RIGHT NOW.
Of all the SUNNO))) cds, and there have been a LOT, this remains perhaps the closest to the original template of worshipping Earth II to a T. Which as far as we're concerned, at least sonically, is a very very good thing. Earth tribute band? Sunn? Huh? For those confused, or new to the world of Sunn 0))), let's elaborate.
Once upon a time, there was Earth, a slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. Turning sound into something so slow and physical you could almost feel it more than hear it. They disbanded, disappeared, and since then they've resurfaced, albeit with a new, WAY less sludgey sound, so it was and IS up to the dudes in Sunn 0))) (get it, Earth, Sunn, there's also a Sunn tribute band called Moon) to revisit, and resuscitate Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em!), and thus, Sunn 0))) deliver what could be a part two to Earth 2, loooooong tracks of primordial dirge, humming and rumbling and crumbling and moving like a blackened glacier, riffs sprawled out over minutes instead of seconds, a slowly churning propulsive murky low end beast. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course, as we mentioned above, the band name Sunn is derived from the proximity in the solar system to Earth, but also, and maybe moreso, the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes here, but are basically following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy!
We know lots of you SunnO))) fanatics missed out on the various versions of the GrimmRobe Demos 2lp. So we're happy to report that we finally got a bunch more of these in. Supposedly the LAST pressing, on good old black vinyl (the best sounding BTW). Not sure how long they'll last, so act fast.
Now all serious connoisseurs of depression, death, doom and utter grimness have reason to celebrate. No, we're certainly not talking about G.W. Bush's second-term inauguration! It's music we're going on about, and for fans of that brand of heavy, doomful drone that we know so many of you AQ-customers are, this IS good news: the re-release of the debut album from not-so-dynamic doom duo SUNNO)))! Yes! So log off of eBay, save your ninety bucks (that's what Southern Lord says the original cd was going for) and thank 'em for at last reissuing this disc, previously out on Hydrahead subsidary HH Noise Industries back in 2000. And yes, there's a BONUS TRACK. Sixteen minutes and forty seconds of bonus track entitled "Grimm & Bear It"...those jokers. That brings this album to over 72 minutes in length, perfect for enjoying your own mini-coma in its ambient embrace. Of all the SUNNO))) cds since, this remains perhaps the closest to the original template of worshipping Earth II to a T.
For some "historical" perspective (and for any who are puzzled, to explain that last comment), let's revist our original review of this disc, upon its first release:
"Whoa, an Earth tribute band! Y'know, Earth, the slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo from a few years back, the band that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. They're not around anymore (and weren't that great toward the end anyway) but this project (featuring members of Burning Witch/Goatsnake/Engine Kid) revisits Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em), for some long long tracks of primordial dirge. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course the band name Sunn is derived from the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes, but are essentially following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy!"
And as some of you have mentioned to us, the Southern Lord website lists a super limited purple vinyl version, but those are available only via direct mailorder from Southern Lord and are most likely gone already anyway.
Now all serious connoisseurs of depression, death, doom and utter grimness have reason to celebrate. No, we're certainly not talking about G.W. Bush's second-term inauguration! It's music we're going on about, and for fans of that brand of heavy, doomful drone that we know so many of you AQ-customers are, this IS good news: the re-release of the debut album from not-so-dynamic doom duo SUNNO)))! Yes! So log off of eBay, save your ninety bucks (that's what Southern Lord says the original cd was going for) and thank 'em for at last reissuing this disc, previously out on Hydrahead subsidary HH Noise Industries back in 2000. Now this classic comes packaged in a jewel case, instead of a spray painted hefty bag sleeve. And yes, there's a BONUS TRACK. Sixteen minutes and forty seconds of bonus track entitled "Grimm & Bear It"...those jokers. That brings this album to over 72 minutes in length, perfect for enjoying your own mini-coma in its ambient embrace. Of all the SUNNO))) cds since, this remains perhaps the closest to the original template of worshipping Earth II to a T.
For some "historical" perspective (and for any who are puzzled, to explain that last comment), let's revist our original review of this disc, upon its first release:
"Whoa, an Earth tribute band! Y'know, Earth, the slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo from a few years back, the band that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. They're not around anymore (and weren't that great toward the end anyway) but this project (featuring members of Burning Witch/Goatsnake/Engine Kid) revisits Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em), for some long long tracks of primordial dirge. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course the band name Sunn is derived from the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes, but are essentially following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy!"
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Whoa, an Earth tribute band! Y'know, Earth, the slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo from a few years back, the band that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. They're not around anymore (and weren't that great toward the end anyway) but this project (featuring members of Burning Witch/Goatsnake/Engine Kid) revisits Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em), for some long long tracks of primordial dirge. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course the band name Sunn is derived from the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes, but are essentially following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy! Each disc, with a handsome paper sleeve cover, comes sealed in its own spray painted hefty bag!
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
The first 5000 copies come with a bonus disc titled SatanOscillateMyMetallicSonatas (a nod to Soundgarden, there?) that features a single 28 minute track called "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom" guest starring Dylan Carlson from Earth! Before we go any further... are you thinking what we're thinking... April Fools? SUNNO))) and Boris And Earth!!! And I bet you at least some of the bonus track is in E!! Boy, did we call it. And actually Atsuo from Boris confided in a friend of AQ that indeed, part of the reason they got Dylan to guest was because of that April Fool's review! How cool is that?!?
Anyway, the bonus track is a monstrous wall of churning guitars, with occasional howled almost death metal vocals buried way down in the mix, and languorous Earth Hex-like twang guitar draped lazily above a churning blackhole ambience. So good.
Besides Dylan Carlson of Earth, there are lots of other guest performers including Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston from Thrones (also ex-Melvins, ex-Earth), Kim Thayil from Soundgarden (aha) and Rex Ritter from Jessamine.
Packaged beautifully in a mini cd style gatefold, with AMAZING cover art, black on black with weird muted color and text printed in glossy varnish and metallic gold, both bands be-robed and standing in a cornfield, a full color booklet attached to the inside, a metallic sticker on the front, each copy individually numbered.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Okay, it's that time again, you know, when we tell you about a new, slightly different version of a Boris record you already have. And then you decide just how much of a Boris (and in this case, SUNNO))) as well) freak you really are.
This is the Japanese version of the recent collaborative effort between Japanese sludgelords Boris and their American counterparts, glacial doom merchants SUNNO))). Arguably the best release from either band in years, it's alternately achingly lovely, and crushingly brutal. But what's the deal with the Japanese version, and do you need it? Well, if you're as Boris obsessed as most of us are, the answer is yes. First off, it's got amazing new artwork. A gold and black slipcover with shimmering spot varnish text over a subtly altered booklet, on nice paper and with a fold-out Japanese insert. But it's the five minute bonus track that may have most of you shelling out another $20. A five minute alternate version of the track "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)". Already the record's strangest and most haunting track, female vocals hover over slow shifting slabs of glistening sound. Like doom metal gone slowcore. But on the alternate extra track, the "Black Sheep" version, the doomy moody slowcore is transformed into a string quartet, all warm soaring strings over swirling shimmers, drifting sun dappled melodies over swoonsome melodies and long drawn out chords. Quite pretty, and very much a strange addition. But is it worth buying all over again. Well, it is missing the bonus disc that came with the first pressing of the American version, but if you missed out on that completely, this is obviously essential. If you have that one already, well, it just might be worth it to have both. Up to you.
Here's what we had to say about the original disc:
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
The ominous revving of a juggernaut engine. Shifting tectonic plates. Glacial drone-riffs as death-knell backing for the sinister intonations of ritualistic incantations in a foreign tongue... That's SUNNO))) we're talking about, all right!
Imagine a sealed white room, an otherwise-empty space with the cowled-in-black SUNNO))) set up on black risers, their massive backline of amplification and instruments also duplicated as full-scale frozen white sculptures manufactured of cast resin and salt by NYC artist Banks Violette. Entombed within, the band plays alone to no audience, the massive resonation of their sub-sonic prayers self-referentially worshipful, a cosmos unto itself. This LP contains music written as the soundtrack to such a performance, which took place at a gallery in London, England in June of 2005. These actual recordings, though, were studio-recorded in 2006 and feature the core SUNNO))) duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley joined by guests Atsuo (of Boris), Joe Preston (of Thrones), and Hungarian black metal icon Attila Csihar (of Mayhem). There's two side-long tracks: "Belulrol Pusztit" is a creepily quiet, hushed ceremony, Attila's whispering reptilian rasp met with rattlings and rumblings, hinting at the waves of distortion and feedback to be unleashed on the louder, heavier Skullflowering of "Orakulum"... DOOM!!
This limited (black) vinyl version of Oracle is probably the only format we're gonna get, though there IS (or was...) a compact disc edition, a double cd in fact, containing everything on this LP plus an extra disc's worth of live material called "Helio)))sophist", but it was only available for sale at SUNNO)))'s recent shows. If, and it's a big IF, they have any copies left over after their tour then we're told we may get a few, but considering that copies of that 2cd are already selling for hefty sums on eBay (fie on limited editions!!) we won't necessarily count on getting any... So probably best to grab one of these while you can...
We've long been fans of Canadian 'supergroup' Superconductor, long before Superconductor member Carl Newman went on to front Zumpano and then New Pornographers, but don't be expecting any sort of pop here, although those pop sensibilities do seep into SC's twisted experimental noise rock. Infamous for their seven (7!) guitarist lineup, these guys kicked out some seriously kick ass jams, heavy, rhythmic, dynamic, walls of guitars, pounding octopoidal drums, howled vox, but somehow, catchy as hell too. We reviewed their classic Bastardsong a while back, their last, and poppiest record, but we just discovered that our distributor still had copies of this, SC's 1991 debut ep, which still kills, and sounds heavier and hookier than most of the bands today, and includes one very aQ jam that knocked us for a loop.
It had been a while since we heard this, but got one in and threw it on, and wait a second, we recognized one of the songs, riffy and heavy, and then the vocals, a super distinctive wail, and it dawned on us, it was a cover of Japanese '70s hard psych gods Flower Travellin' Band's "Satori", and it was awesome, not that far removed from the original, the vocals spot on, just a bit buzzier and heavier. And we were struck again by what amazing music nerds these guys were. The cover of Bastardsong was a parody of Iasos' new age classic Inter-Dimensional Music which we just listed a while back, and here they were covering Flower Travellin' Band WAY before any of us had heard them. And it's that music nerdery that informed the music of Superconductor and elevated their sound WAY beyond bash and crash noise rock. So yeah, the FTB cover here is worth the price of admission. But the rest of the songs rule too, "Bushpilot" is ridiculously hooky and catchy for being a weirdly mathy chunk of noise drenched indie rock, a should have been nineties underground hit if there ever was one. "Ride The Big Penis", besides having an amazing title, also boasts some serious churning riffage, and some skull caving drum pummel, which leads directly into "Clamhammer" (these guys had a way with titles), another melody infused slab of noiserock, that sounds a bit like Sonic Youth mixed with Unsane mixed with Polvo, angular and buzzy and sludgey and blown out. Finally, the group finishes off with "Riffmania", which is as advertised, chugging, buzzing riffage wrapped around some BIG drums, with the multiple guitarists adding all sorts of psychedelic squiggle and layered buzz, not to mention some seriously distorted in-the-red vocal howls (about as far removed from the New Pornographers as can be), the song gradually splintering into crumbling slabs of disembodied riffage, swirls of feedback and wildly loosening drum damage.
Oh did we mention the amazing confusional cover art, how about the names of the band members: Dream Whip, It's On You, Thighmaster, He Who Is Named, Flying Fist, Noise Annoys, El Impacto, Sweet Bitch, Delicious Warm, and weirdest of all... Alan Smithee (the pseudonym movie directors use when they don't want their own name on a film!).
We love these guys, and this might be their finest moment, heavy and hooky in equal measure, tongue lodged firmly in cheek, but seriously ruling!
This Norwegian "death-jazz" trio make their debut on three cds, super-creative electronics/jazz improv, unlike much else. A big fave around here.
Considering that Norwegian "death jazz" unit Supersilent began their recording career with a triple cd release entitled Supersilent 1-3, it's not so odd that they'd overwhelm their fans, these several years later, with the near-simultaneous release of both installments 10 and 11 in the Supersilent discography. As it happens, 10 features their newest recordings, while 11 consists of somewhat older material, tracks left over from the sprawling sessions that produced Supersilent 8 back in 2005. That's apparently why Supersilent 11 has been done as a vinyl-only release, while Supersilent 10 is on cd (and, eventually, but not yet, also lp).
Now, for those of you who already have a good proportion of Supersilent's 1 through 9, need we really say much about 10 and 11? Each numbered Supersilent release thus far has been brilliant, right? Yet each somewhat different, in representing Supersilent's unique style of electronic / acoustic improv, which can range from glacially paced, spacious ambient drift to fractured rhythmic glitch, from mellow melodic bliss to distorted noisy chaos.
In the case of 10, it's tilted toward the hauntingly atmospheric, following on from the minimalistic approach of Supersilent 9 (wherein the group, without their former drummer, all played Hammond organ). These twelve (also simply numbered, as usual) tracks make evocative use of Arve Henriksen's limpid, moody trumpet solos, Stale Storlokken's sparse, somber Steinway grand piano, and the quietly droning, slightly gritty "audio virus" of electronics expert and producer Helge "Deathprod" Sten, who also plays electric guitar (whilst the other two in the trio contribute on electronics as well). Intriguing, gorgeous, suspenseful soundscapes are the result, replete with fragile melody and distant drone, and Supersilent 10 thus rates a 10 with us. So if you're just encountering Supersilent now, this would be a fine starting point, and then working backwards from 10 wouldn't be a bad idea.
Fans of course, at least the turntable enabled, will want 11, too. Apparently the studio sessions for Supersilent 8 resulted in a lot more music being made than they could fit on one cd, and after editing, there was enough good stuff left over that they felt they should eventually also release (in fact, they almost just made 8 into a triple cd), and indeed they were right. That 8th Supersilent we recall as being possibly their most "rock" effort, and also a quite varied one, and 11 could certainly be considered utterly worthy "bonus tracks" to that effort, and in addition it's a lovely limited edition fetish object, 180 gram vinyl, lots of room for the artwork (hahaha, that's a joke, since as with all Supersilent releases, the Kim Hiorthoy cover design is a solid color with white Helvetica text... looks great though!).
A little bit more jazzy & readily "listenable" than their amazing, overwhelming triple-cd debut, this sophomore release by the mysterious Nowegian group Supersilent continues to explore the limits of hyper-rhythmic free jazz, mixed with elements of ambient, musique concrete, noise and instrumental rock. If somewhat undefinable improv-ish bands like Starfuckers, Skullflower, Nels Cline Trio, etc. interest you, here's another one to add to that august roster. Parts of this sound like a live band (out)doing the most intense studio work of an Autechre or Squarepusher! Excellent album from an as-yet underappreciated band (although a recent feature in The Wire magazine signals a possible change in that status).
Another brilliant disc from this Norwegian "death-jazz" outfit! Bandmember and producer Helge Sten (aka Deathprod) took some 30 hours of material recorded live (direct to DAT) in various European locations (London, Oslo, Bologna) and edited it down to fit
8 is not Supersilent's eighth album, actually, 'cause their first, a triple cd extravaganza, was entitled 1-3... and Supersilent 7 was actually a live dvd. So if you don't count that one, then Supersilent 8 is really the celebrated Norwegian outfit's fifth studio release. Still, it's far enough into Supersilent's career that you'd think we'd have a good notion of what to expect from these AQ faves. But if we really did, it wouldn't be Supersilent. And as usual they offer no clues: the digipack cd design is as usual stylish but generic, and song titles are an unnecessary luxury in which other more ordinary bands indulge. Here we have eight nameless tracks, 66 minutes of new and varied Supersilent output. In the past, they've created stunning soundscapes that are part Miles Davis, part Starfuckers, part Autechre, a hybrid of dronejazz improv and electronic processing, a live band screwing with itself via computer feedback. They call it "death-jazz" but what the heck does that really mean?
So maybe a track by track accounting is needed. The disc starts off quietly, cautiously, eerily ambient, not giving much up at first. It's a ways into the first 11 minute long track that, with increased volume, a rhythmic pulse makes itself throbbingly known, and eventually builds into a roiling low-end cacophony, with what sounds like a tolling bell amidst percussive splatter and insectoid buzz, slowed down and grinding. The second track is even more sparse and atmospheric, with occasional improv percussion clatter, echoing cymbals, and suspenseful electronic organ musings. So far, this is turning out to be a good album for this time of the year (Halloween being this week!). The third cut continues the sorta spooky and sci-fi theme, venturing further into a dense thicket of crackly, agitated sounds, with stabs of sizzling synth and clumsy, clomping rhythmic rattle, harking back to the counter-intuitive chaos of Supersilent 1-3. Track four is sleepier, gentler, with the breathy trumpet of Arve Henriksen weaving a fragile melody.
Then suddenly with the fifth track, it's like we've flipped the record to a (thus far hypothetical, as a vinyl version hasn't yet been released) side two, which begins on a quite different note than before, with a bizarre, distorted, almost robot-metallic voice or voices intoning some sort of garbled rant. But by the time this track's twelve minutes are up, we've heard more of the melodious trumpet, humming drone, percussive splatter, and glacial glitch that we realize we DO expect from ol' Supersilent. That's followed by the stuttering electronic clicks and plings of track six, this song's special surprise being high, wordless female vocals soaring up and over the ending. Number seven is a skronkier, noisier affair than anything yet on the album, it's an energetic compression of the cacophony heard on tracks 1 or 3, the drummer going nuts, the organist sucking up lots of electricity, and with the addition of what must be wild, howling, heavily effected vocals swirling cryptically over it all. Supersilent let it all hang out on this one, yeah! #7 would be the piece for them to play if they ever had to share a stage with Acid Mothers Temple. And then track 8 brings Supersilent 8 to a quiet close, perfectly spaced sounds and silence like a more regulated Starfuckers jam, clicks and clacks and crackle, that only lasts four minutes and four seconds but could go on and on forever as far as we're concerned.
Wow. Another excellent, original Supersilent effort, with the use/abuse of vocals opening up some new dimensions to their sound. Parts of Supersilent 8 give us the idea we're listening to some sort of really strange field recording, the documentation of the fracturing of an iceberg, the swarmings of bugs, or the language of birds or bats, when in fact this is a very human-activated, machine-mediated, far-from-natural audio document. Of course at other times on this album that fact is quite evident! Indeed, Supersilent 8 also is the closest these "death-jazzers" have come to making rock album, especially when the super distorted, hazy murk of psychedelic howling almost garage-rock-improv pummel of track 7 is taken into account.
Wow, we're getting old. Our favorite Norwegian electronic/jazz/WTF improvising unit, Supersilent, are already up to number 9 in their discography! Almost into double digits. (Of course, that's not nearly as prolific as some bands, imagine if Circle, Nadja, or good grief Acid Mothers Temple numbered their releases. you'd never be able to recall which one was which, that's for sure. But, hey, you would at least know what order they came in... c'mon AMT fans, do you remember if Ominous From The Cosmic Inferno predated Iao Chant From The Cosmic Inferno, or maybe it was Journey Into The Cosmic Inferno that came first? And where do Demons From Nipples and Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Under The Stars fit in, chronologically? Not that you really need to know either. Ok, enough with that digression...)
So, what's Supersilent all about this time? As usual, the lack of titles and artwork don't give a lot to go on. The Kim Hiorthoy designed digipak is a bright sort of blue this time, for what that's worth (being about the only design decision Hiorthoy has to make for each otherwise identically generic looking Supersilent release, probably a lot of thought goes into the color choice). Well it turns out that Supersilent 9 is one of their more atmospheric, almost ambient efforts, with band member / producer Deathprod's aesthetic to the fore. There's four tracks, none of 'em short, ranging from 11:43, to the longest at 14:32... plenty of time for the listener to get lost in their carefully improvised, mostly quiet and slowly unfolding soundworlds... Arve Henriksen's breathy trumpet is ultra muted, really we're not sure if we are hearing it or not, and in terms of percussion, Supersilent 9 is entirely without the quirky rhythmic elements that characterized their chaotically skittery debut Supersilent 1-3 or the almost Autechre-ish glitchery of Supersilent 4. Instead, this, when rhythmic at all, evinces more of slow sawing whirr or thick throb, as on the droning and kinda doomy second track (the loudest one here as well), which pulses with shuddering distortion and has a bit of an atonal 20th century classical vibe to it. The tracks on Supersilent 9 are also more "of a piece", not as eclectic as on 6 or 8... There's certainly variation but it's constrained, the group taking a "less is more", minimalistic approach to this disc. The surprise vocals and psych-rock moves of Supersilent 8 are nowhere to be found this time 'round. Instead this hews closest to the glacial bliss of Supersilent 5, if we recall correctly, but in even more of an abstract manner. In parts, this comes quite close to literally living up to the band name. Dreamy and drifty, this is. And so very nice.
What we've since learned about the (even by Supersilent standards) unusual nature of this disc is that their drummer quit the band right before they recorded this... and the remaining three members all decided to play Hammond organ exclusively for this session! Not that you'd guess that's all you were hearing. Ultimately, another very satisfying release from this unique outfit! Leaving us curious about what direction they'll take in the future, when it's time for number 10.
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Supersister were a seventies Dutch prog group who released a quartet of classic albums, but none more classic than this, their 1970 debut. And this, Present From Nancy, is so goddamn good, if we had our way, we would have ordered a ton of these and made it a Record Of The Week, or at least PROG Record Of The Week, although it's more like a contender for Prog Record Of The FOREVER!! But sadly, we've been unable to get more than a few at a time, even now we have less than ten copies, and while we should be able to get more, it might take us a while, but we figured it would be better at least that a few of you prog freaks were able to get your hands on these, rather than no one at all.
So what's got us all hyped up? What's so great about Supersister? Just listen to the three sound samples, easily one of the best one-two-three punches in classic prog. A dense relentless, super technical ELP-ish workout, with manic piano, fuzzed out organ, incredible complex drumming, impossible time signatures, killer melodies, some amazing flute leads, and yet even at its most manic and relentless it manages to be both jazzy, groovy, heavy and catchy as hell! In the title track, flutes flutter wildly over the bass piano drum jam locked in beneath, with the band occasionally exploding into awesome flurries of piano and flute before the band bursts back into action. Then there's "Memories Are New", with its warm looped fuzz organ, and lilting vocal, thick crunchy fuzz guitar, and again some incredible drumming, and a way with composition that manages to make even the most obtuse time signatures and strange arrangements flow perfectly. Finally, "11/8", named for the time signature we suppose, is another dense acrobatic instrumental workout, the organs and synths fully fuzzed out, even the pass is super distorted, working through rapid fire flurries of notes, the drums somehow locked in tight, with the synths occasionally stuttering into skittery buzz, before the track devolves into heavy downtuned chords and tinkling piano, so dynamic and varied and again, the rare sort of prog that gets stuck in your head like a pop song. AND THAT'S JUST THREE SONGS.
The rest of the record continues in a similarly proggy vein, but gets even weirder, adding all sorts of dark shimmering drones, bizarre bits of a capella, pounding fuzz guitar jams, dreamy drifty almost new age sounding soundscapes, and this reissue tacks on two singles, the first one sounds like the Zombies or some other sixties/seventies dream pop outfit, with a B-side that is SO bizarre, a woozy organ driven jam, with a heavily accented spoken word story about an alien or something, complete with processed alien voices. The other single is an Elvis style honkytonk jam that is also truly bizarre, while the B side is a Doors-y groove, with weirdly crooned vocals and warm organs, and what can only be a kazoo solo. This band did get increasingly goofy with each record, almost too much to take by the end, but Present From Nancy is Supersister at their heaviest and grooviest and proggiest. And definitely remains one of our favorite prog jams EVER.
Two new Utech's this list, and that's something to be stoked about, 'cause the label rarely disappoints, if ever. This one's from Japanese guitarist Suzuki Junzo, who's played in Tokyo flashbacking psych rock bands like Overhang Party, Miminokoto, and Astral Travelling Unity, though here he's solo, just him and his guitar and the black void. Yes, it can be bleak and ominous... but pretty, calm, mesmeric, too. There's four long tracks, beginning with the 20-minute title track, inspired by bluesman Lonnie Johnson's "Blue Ghost Blues"... though again, this isn't blues. Something far darker. For the first half, it could be a folky James Blackshaw on luudes kind of thing... then it enters eerie ambient suspense soundtrack territory... before around the 12 minute mark when Junzo puts the pedal to the metal and his amp begins to howl and fry Keiji Haino style. For reals, for Rallizes. Track two, "Beyond The Yellow Clouds", is 11 minutes of dark shimmering drone bliss, segueing smoothly into the disc's shortest (8:33) but most badass track, its title a tribute to the Pink Fairies, "Shivering Larry's Last Freakout", totally monomaniacal, distortodelic, repetitive riffarma that comes across like one of Tetuzi Akiyama's brilliant/dumb "Don't Forget To Boogie" cuts mixed maybe with some NWOFHM (Circle) stuff, frantic primitive minimalist ZZ Haino in a wind tunnel action - damn! Then as a comedown, chillout, final piece, there's 13 more minutes of ghostly guitar grind, a la Ulaan Khol or Li Jianhong, "Studies For Three Broken Canes Of Dr. Dream", that lives up to its fantastic title, whatever that means. We like, but we'll be queuing up ol' Shivering Larry again in a second, that's the jam!
Utech wins again with this one - grab a copy and put on your shades and enjoy. Limited to 300 copies only. And as usual with Utech stuff, packaged in a nice oversized sleeve. The artwork's mostly black, the only image, a half-seen Junzo holding his ghostly guitar. He's NOT wearing shades, which seems strange.
The "Icelandic Invasion" continues, as Shadoks reissues some more crucial '60s/'70s psych-prog action from that island nation. Last time we highlighted the groovy "hairy funk" heaviness of Odmenn. This time, two more: the debut from Trubrot (1969), and this one, the sole album by Svanfridur (1972). Both bands demonstrate definite Beatles influence, and do so well, but also are quite eccentric in their own right, which perhaps can be ascribed to their Icelandic heritage?
This group was definitely musically talented, hot stuff on the live circuit in their native Iceland, though the sales of this self-released lp were disappointing. And thus it ended up being their only album. Too bad, it's a good 'un after all, considered a Nordic prog classic by many collectors today, and something we think that fans of the modern day Swedish group Dungen might totally dig, for that same sort of Scandinavian prog/pop/psych blend only this is the real deal, not a retro remake.
Svanfridur, like Odmenn, is also fairly heavy and fuzzed out, often enough, on acid blues rockers like "My Dummy", whilst being simultaneously super catchy on the pop side of things too, exemplified by opener "The Woman Of Our Day", which sounds like a hit to us. It's a diverse album though, Svandfridur happily mixing things up, getting moody with flute and strings on the title track "What's Hidden There?", and moodier still with the strange synth atmospheres of "Did You Find?"... Then there's the staccato folk violin into acid rock distorted guitar rippage of "Finido". Great stuff all over.
Like most Shadoks reissues, this includes extensive liner notes in the cd booklet (revealing, among other things, that members of Svanfridur, like SO many other bands of the day it seems, had been involved in a production of the musical Hair), along with tons of photos and graphics. The original sleeve bearing the lyrics (in English) and recording credits is reproduced, and if you look close you'll note the presence of the classic admonition that this record is "To Be Played Loud"! Indeed.
FINALLY HERE ON VINYL AND BACK IN STOCK ON CD TOO!! This Record Of The Week (and Allan's #1 of the year), went completely AWOL from distribution shortly after we first listed it last summer, d'oh. Now at last the label sorted out a new distro, and so we have the cd back from limbo, and also the vinyl version now available too for the first time!!! Here's our original review...
Not to be confused with a few other Sweat Lodges out there (we reviewed a tape by a screamo punk band called Sweat Lodge a few years back), this Sweat Lodge is a heavy psych stoner rock band outta Austin, Texas, and they are AWESOME. Seriously, all the stoner rock digging peeps here at AQ immediately fell in love at first listen, they're that good. Actually we meant to list it a few weeks ago, but our supplier was out of stock - but now we've 'em are not only listing it, but making it Record Of The Week, just 'cause everybody here (not just the stoner rock digging peeps) has been digging it so much and we're still spinning it a LOT.
There's a big Black Sabbath influence evident here, you know, jamming grooves, powerful riffage, and Ozzy-ish (but not too Ozzy-ish) vocals... Sure, lots of bands play that game these days, but these guys are winners. Just super solid, with catchy songs, a dark and trippy vibe, and maybe most crucially, those vocals - the guy is good! Also the sound and mix is just right, clean but not too polished or produced, just a very satisfying, listenable sound, heavy but accessible and melodic. Along with the Sabbath, what we're hearing reminds us of the likes of Uncle Acid, Freedom Hawk, (fellow Austinites) Fogg, maybe even some Golden Void, and other heavy, rockin' faves so if you're into stuff like that, do yourself a favor and check out Sweat Lodge!!!
Weirdly, this band started out as a three piece, of just bass, drums, and vocals - no guitar! They performed and even put out a 7" and demo tape with that lineup, and that stuff WAS cool (lotsa heavy fuzz bass and those killer vocals, yeah why not?) but really they made the right decision recently to expand the band to its current five-piece format, as documented on this debut full-length, bringing in not just one but two guitarists for not just a fuller, even heavier sound but a lot more interesting psychedelic interplay and texture. Sabbath with twin guitars, nice idea. Just listen. Everybody we've played it for so far has gotten hooked!
Not long ago we highlighted a cool compilation on the Psychic Circle label devoted to '70s British glam rock, entitled "Blitzing The Ballroom" - an obvious reference to a song and band that didn't actually appear on the comp, The Sweet and their biggest hit, "Ballroom Blitz"! That song is an immortal glam anthem, up there with anything by Slade, T-Rex or Gary Glitter... and definitely provided some inspiration to the far more obscure acts who populated that collection, Sweet being a band who began as bubblegum lightweights but soon became glam champs with hard rock guitar chops.
So, if you're one of the folks who picked up that comp, and loved the catchy, campy, kick assery found on it, and DON'T have anything by The Sweet, well this new double disc anthology is just the thing for ya. Particularly since Sweet's albums, with the exception of Desolation Boulevard, are still sorta hard to come by in the States (and on top of that, their discography is a confusion of UK- and US- only releases, including separate versions of the same albums with wildly different tracklistings). It's probably easiest to go with a comprehensive 'best of' like this one, which brings together tracks taken from various of their albums '73-'80, plus the b-side of the "Love Is Like Oxygen" single, a boogie number called "Cover Girl".
There's 16 songs on each of the 2 discs, ranging from the band's earliest pre-fab pop incarnation circa 1973 to the quasi-metallic, semi-symphonic genius stuff they came up with once they came into their own in the mid '70s... all the way to their declining years as the '80s were about to dawn, the glories of glam far behind them, the new wave getting a try out. All of Sweet's styles are represented here, starting off with the bubblegum pop likes of "Funny Funny" and "Alexander Graham Bell"... soon The Sweet start revving it up, though, with tracks like "Little Willy" and "Wig-Wam Bam" being just as sugary as their earlier stuff but with extra rock n' roll oomph. Then track ten, disc one rolls around, with THAT drum intro, and it's time for a good ol' "Ballroom Blitz", that the band has been building up to! And that's more or less when the action really starts, the rest of disc one filled with equally worthy hits like "The Six Teens", "A.C.D.C.", and "Fox On The Run". Total teenage kicks, delivered with panache (and vocal harmonies) that we imagine would surprise and thrill quite a few Queen fans.
The Queen comparison continues on disc two, which also provides some real evidence for considering Sweet something of a METAL band, ripping it up with a pop/prog twist. Definitely the likes of "Action", "Sweet F.A." and "4th Of July" (which reminds us of a jazzy Uriah Heep) display their share of heaviness! There's a reason why the Scorpions covered Sweet songs (they did - we've heard a bootleg!). The Sweet were pushing into Queen -and- Led Zeppelin territory for sure (they parallel some non-metallic Zep moves here too, like their funk side, a bit). Eventually, as the disc progresses, they tend to retreat from the rock, the kitschy synths taking over from the guitars, as the band tries again for pop hitmaking success, leaving you to wonder what would have been had they simply 'gone metal' instead... ah well, 'twas good while it lasted.
As with any anthology, one can quibble with the selections, we'd have included more tracks from 1976's Give Us A Wink! (like the stomping, almost Sabbathy "Cockroach") but, all in all, the compilers of this set did pick the best Sweet stuff for the most part, without over-representing any one facet of their career (which we might have done, if we'd be asked to make our own, single disc collection, concentrating on the more metal side of Sweet, the stuff that sounds like it would fit comfortably on Queen's Sheer Heart Attack...).
Fun stuff from an often underrated yet talented band whose commercial success came at the expense of classic rock cred, though if you give this a spin you'll realize they were indeed badass rockers, when they wanted (or were allowed) to be... again, if you're partial to any '70s glam jams, you've gotta get into The Sweet! And if you thought this band was all just "Ballroom Blitz" and nothing else, you've got another think coming, especially when you hear the song "Action".
If you read our in-between list last Friday, the one where where highlighted some of our favorite things on the Holy Mountain label, you may remember us mentioning this new, soon-to-be-reviewed Holy Mountain release, the debut album from Swiftumz. As promised, here it is, and it's awesome. But, those of you you familiar with Holy Mountain's usual output might be expecting something deeply psychedelic, acid folky, or even experimentally abrasive... so Swiftumz might throw you for a loop, 'cause instead it's quite poppy. Hum-along, stick in your head, lalala-ishly poppy, wow! But it's lo-fi bedroom indie pop, of course, kinda on the Ariel Pink or Art Museums tip, delirious and distorted enough to find favor with the Holy Mountain mystics. REALLY distorted on opener "Don't Cha Want Me Back?" in fact.
It's the work of a local fella, super nice guy and man about town, Chris McVicker. Who until now, we hadn't realized was such a hidden pop talent. Perhaps we should have known, apparently he wrote a hit single for Hunx & His Punx, but we tend to think of him as the guy who hangs out with Oakland heavies Pigs and brings us their records (and one of the Pigs guys plays on this, as does Myles Cooper and some other folks). So, surprised were we that this was such a catchy affair, inspired by the '80s British stuff from the C86 scene, but also reminding us of all kinds of other good ol' underground indie faves like Dinosaur Jr and The Supreme Dicks. There's plenty of strummy guitar jangle, shimmering FX, tick tockin' drum machine beats, and gentle vox to lift these tracks to the top of the pops in your heart. Really good stuff, it was tough to pick which songs we liked best out of the bunch to make sound samples of, 'cause they're all so good. Some mellow and dreamy, others uptempo energetic, all hooky and hazy and full of heartache.
By the way, that cute name, Swiftumz, is that McVicker's secret nickname or something? Sounds kind of like a term of endearment - or perhaps the opposite. "Good one, Swiftumz!" one could say, sarcastically. But we will say it sincerely, this IS a good one, Swiftumz, we're impressed!! Enthusiastically recommended. And by the way, the phone number that's on the sticker on the front cover, below where it says "call me", that IS McVicker's phone number! And he really doesn't mind if you call him.
Though unfortunately vinyl-only, this does include a mp3 download code.
You'd have thought there'd be a band by now called Switchblade, but these guys I think are the first we've seen here at Aquarius to use that moniker...from the name you might expect some sort of garagey rockabilly punk or somesuch, but this ain't the Stray Cats. Nope, Switchblade are a punishing metalcore trio from Sweden, who could just as easily be labeled a 'post-rock' band. First off, you'd swear this was recorded by Steve Albini (though it's not): it's got that spacious, dry, natural room sound recording quality with BIG drums. Mix that with quiet-loud dynamics and electric drone potential and you'll be wondering if this metal at all until vocals make a rare, screaming throat abuse appearance to remind you. Oh, and also 'cause when it's heavy it's, yeah, heavy! Totally hypnotic and dark...kind of like a slow, epic version of old AQ instro-metal faves Fuehler. Or some sort of Albini-produced krautrock. Or a downer Circle. Or an evil Mogwai... Shellac, Pelican and Isis would also be good reference points. While some metalcore outfits have a densely layered, hyperkinetic, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink modus operandi (i.e. Converge, Coalesce), Switchblade, with their stripped-down, mostly instrumental, repetitive-riffing approach, seem to utilize a keep-it-simple aesthetic that really works for them. There's not even any song titles, just six numbered tracks (47 minutes total) of Switchblade's sinister, soporific, satisfying music.
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Not to be confused with the sludgier Sword from Virginia or the '80s Sword from Canada, or indie rockers The Swords Project or Idyll Swords or any of the umpteen other bands metal and otherwise called Sword or something like Sword... THIS Sword hails from Austin TX, and is mightily hyped as the next big thing in the indie/metal crossover world, a la The Fucking Champs or Pelican. They're at the very least the next Early Man. And sound a bit like that Brooklyn retro-metal outfit (with the Ozzyish vox). They're also touring with 'em, playing here in San Francisco around the corner from Aquarius at 12 Galaxies next week, Tuesday the 21st of February. I (Allan) am for sure gonna go... 'cause this band (and Early Man too) have the potential to slay live, judging from the studio recorded evidence. Actually I've been curious about The Sword for a while, heard some good things about these guys first when our pals in Slough Feg (or was it Hammers Of Misfortune?) played with 'em in Texas. Then I guess they also got some good press at SXSW. So, here's their debut full length on the Kemado label (home also to Diamond Nights, Tarantula A.D. and Dungen among others). And, put briefly, it rocks.
Their pounding, uber-heavy, swords (duh) and sorcery stoner metal reminds us a bit of Zebulon Pike, and A LOT of High On Fire (and also, thus, Sleep). Those aforementioned vocals especially. Their lyrics and graphic imagery are all seemingly inspired by Norse mythology and the music, rather than being a black metal blur, is suitably heroic as well -- charging, triumphant, and almost wearying in its relentless bombast... which is why the mellow respite at the beginning of speedster "Iron Swan" is welcome, and the hills and valleys of the album's longest, proggiest, most epic tune "Lament For The Aurochs" give it staying power. The Sword sure sound serious, taking the weightiness of stoner/doom metal and putting it to old school, dual guitar, fantasy metal use. We imagine many fans of The Fucking Champs and Mastodon and some of the other bands mentioned above will indeed like this.
It's The Sword....in SPAAAAAAAAACE! Well, that is, the popular stoner doom quartet that so many "troo metallers" love to hate have released their third long-player, and this time trade their lyrical fixation on Norse mythology for more of a science fiction theme. Or cover art, anyway. And, really they don't sound too much different as a result. Still super heavy and riffy and kinda catchy despite the vocalist's limitations, and just as worthy of Guitar Hero inclusion as they ever were. What we are noticing, though, is maybe their Texas roots coming more to the fore, The Sword's typically Sleep-like sound now infused with some serious '70s boogie! The single "Tres Brujas", for instance, has a Southern Rock feel for sure, same with "Lawless Lands". Meanwhile, the cowbell-rockin' "Night City" and others like closer "(The Night The Sky Cried) Tears Of Fire" reveal The Sword's debt to another '70s influence: Thin Lizzy.
Delving into this disc, though, we do discover that the sci-fi (or rather, science fantasy) deal is for real: this is in fact a full-on concept album, with a cryptic nerdy narrative running though such heavy tracks as "Acheron/Unearthing The Orb", "The Chronomancer I: Hubris", and "The Chronomancer II: Nemesis". Hmm, we almost suspect that their brief two weeks of touring two years ago with San Francisco's Slough Feg somehow rubbed off on 'em. There's even Space Pirates in the story!
So, If you like The Sword (and we do, even if sometimes we get a bit bored if we hear too many of their songs in a row) and don't mind 'em doing something just a bit different, you'll likely like Warp Riders; to possibly damn with faint praise it's their least boring album yet!! No, seriously, we're digging it. Not as doomy as they once were, but more hard rockin' is what we're sayin'.
And if you don't like The Sword (or don't think you do), c'mon and give this one a chance anyway, as they're definitely trying out some new (old) stuff here and doing it well. And maybe the haters can give 'em a break now, as they're 3 albums in, and that counts as paying some dues, right?
Sweet! This is the sort of thing that makes for a good Record Of The Week both 'cause of how it sounds (always the biggest consideration of course!!) and also 'cause the back story is pretty cool, too. We'll start with that. T.R.A.S.E. stands for Tape Recorder And Synthesizer Ensemble, a name that, if used by a band nowadays might seem just a bit unimaginatively straightforward & blandly self-explanatory, or perhaps meant ironically academic-sounding somehow. But when you learn that T.R.A.S.E. were a DIY "ensemble" masterminded by a precocious British schoolboy back in 1981, making experimental electronic home recordings that sound not too far from stuff such modern-day outfits as Emeralds and Umberto and Soft Moon would be doing years later, then the name becomes fairly endearing, eh? Just take a look at the cover photo, two skinny teenagers, one looking kinda cool in T-shirt and shades, standing with electric guitar in hand, the other kid in sweater and jeans, looking a bit dorkier as he sits amidst a cluttered array of electronic keyboards, amplifiers, reel-to-reel tape machines and other assorted audio gear. The latter teen is T.R.A.S.E. founder Andy Popplewell, most definitely an A/V geek at his school, who put together his own six-channel audio mixer at age 16 following plans in a issue of Practical Electronics magazine. Being into both sci-fi soundtracks and new wave music like The Human League, Ultravox and Gary Numan (one of the tracks here is a Tubeway Army cover) it wasn't long before that mixer, and other gear he built, like an "Elektor Chorosynth", was put to use to record his own music. Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Giorgio Moroder where among his other inspirations. T.R.A.S.E. recorded one unreleased cassette lp called Electronic Rock, and the deep diggers at B-Music/Finders Keepers have compiled tracks from that tape here along with other home studio / real studio / demo tracks by Popplewell and T.R.A.S.E., 14 total cuts of adolescent outsider synthsplorations, all tick-tocking drum machines and swells of droning synth, adorned with phaser and fuzz FX, replete with gentle melodies and warped "cosmic" soundz. These tracks are mostly instrumental, though a few have vocals, like the Messethetics-ish downer electro pop of "Talk To Me" and the sad, fuzzy "Unrequited Love". So much primitive shimmering synth beauty, the more abstract of the tracks glistening rhythmically, the more song-like coming across like lo-fi coldwave cuts.
Perhaps the best recommendation we can give this, is that playing it in the store, generally results in customers asking about it and buying a copy. Probably the best "long lost tapes" release of vintage unknown electronica since that Rodion G.A. record!! One of those serendipitous discoveries, occasioned by a fortuitous meeting between Andy Popplewell and Andy Votel of Finders Keepers.
The cd booklet includes color photos and vintage synth kit adverts, alongside detailed and very revealing liner notes penned by Popplewell himself, who in the wake of T.R.A.S.E. later became a BBC radio engineer, now works in audio media restoration, and who currently studies conspiracy theories and other esoteric knowledge in his spare time.
Fyi, we momentarily had an import vinyl version of this a while back, but it took 'til now for the cd to materialize, glad it finally did, though it's too bad we don't have the vinyl anymore (maybe again, someday?).
We KNOW this is gonna be one that the legions of AQ customers into psych, prog and other late sixties/early seventies heaviness will want. And even if that's not one of your primary musical specialties, this would be a good choice to check out anyway if at all curious.
British psych/prog power trio T2 released this one amazing album on Decca in 1970, the bizarrely-titled It'll All Work Out In Boomland. Somehow, that LP didn't make much of an impact at the time (although the band did play the Isle of Wight Festival) and has pretty much been forgotten by all except obsessive psych/prog record collectors. Until now, it's been pretty hard to come by - the previous cd reissues we know of were either crappy bootlegs or rare, expensive Japanese imports. We've always wanted to list it, though. So we're very happy that the Lion Productions (US) and Acme Gramophone (UK) labels have just teamed up to put out this nice new reish, which boasts three bonus tracks as well!
T2, composed of drummer/vocalist/songwriter Peter Dunton, guitar whizz Keith Cross, and bassist Bernard Jinks, played HEAVY psychedelic bluesrock (a la Cream, Hendrix, Blue Cheer), mixed with progressive stylings (incorporating acoustic guitar, piano, mellotron, strings). Their songs combine Cross's big fuzzed-out hard rock riffs and psych-skronk leads with mellow, melancholic pretty parts and Dunton's gentle, whispery vocals. Very melodic yet heavy, totally classy and special. For instance, the song "No More White Horses" perfectly weaves amped up electric guitar feedback fury into a tasteful tapestry that also glows with lovely piano and majestic horns. Boomland also features T2's side-long, 21+ minute long masterpiece "Morning", a massive, memorable epic of many moods, a track meant to musically and lyrically describe (or potentially enhance?) an LSD trip, as the text and elaborate diagram included underneath the cd tray explains! There's two other songs on the album proper, the storming opener "In Circles" (which reminds us of stuff on Stray's first album, if you know 'em) and the calmer, exquisitely beautiful "J.L.T.", replete with lush orchestration.
Definitely one of the best bands from those magical years of the early '70s! Certainly one that should be better known. Do you dig the fuzzy, proto-metal heft of the aforementioned Blue Cheer? And also heavy progressive Krautrock stuff like Amon Duul II, Gila, Necronomicon, and Out Of Focus? Well kinda put those two together and you'll have some idea of T2's genius. Or imagine Randy Holden's Population II project gone all symphonic. Also, if you're into early, pastoral British psych/prog like In The Court-era King Crimson, Wishbone Ash, or the more obscure (but recently highlighted here) Bachdenkel then you need to hear T2! And for weird, psychedelic cover paintings, this is up there with Culpeper's Orchard, another lost '70s heavy druggy psych classic that we could compare this with musically as well.
Boomland is the kind of thing that turns up in the personal "Top 10 of All Time" lists of those lucky enough to have heard it. This is an official reissue, done up deluxe with those bonus tracks (live BBC Radio sessions from '70, including two non-album songs among them) and a thick cd booklet crammed with insanely extensive liner notes (excerpted from a book about the album or something) that discuss not just T2's history but also provide in-depth examination of Boomland's songs in regard to both the lyrics and the musical theory behind the compositions. Talk about prog! This goes even beyond the usual thorough Acme/Lion packaging treatment. Highly recommended.
British psych/prog power trio T2 released one amazing album on Decca in 1970, the bizarrely-titled "It'll All Work Out In Boomland". That LP didn't make much of an impact at the time (although the band did play the Isle of Wight Festival) and has
T2, composed of drummer/vocalist/songwriter Peter Dunton, guitar whizz Keith Cross, and bassist Bernard Jinks, played HEAVY psychedelic bluesrock (a la Cream, Hendrix, Blue Cheer), mixed with progressive stylings (acoustic guitar, piano, mellotron, orchestration). Dunton's songs combine big fuzzed-out hard rock riffs and Cross' psych-skronk leads with mellow, melancholic pretty parts and gentle, whispery vocals. Very melodic, very heavy yet beautiful, totally classy and special. Definitely one of the best bands from those magical years of the early '70s! (If you dig the aforementioned Blue Cheer, and can imagine them crossed with heavy progressive Krautrock stuff like Gila and Amon Duul II, or even early, pastoral British psych/prog like King Crimson, you've got some idea about the genius of T2.)
The seven tracks on this self-titled, 45 minute cd were recorded in 1970, intended as the follow-up to "Boomland" -- but the band broke up and this material languished in the vaults until this cd release. Had it come out at the time, who knows -- maybe people would have caught on and T2 would be more than just a cult band today. But, that's the way it is, and here's your chance to join the cult...
Second album from these obscure, grim black metallers. While not well-known, we really dug their debut ("Nattestid....") as an extremely well-executed slice of true black metal in the classic tradition, and this disc offers more of Taake's majestic dark-forest hymns. The songwriting operates within genre norms, but with much interest and variety, employing raspy lead vocals, clean choruses, fast parts, slow parts, strong melodies, and diverse instrumentation. They make use of piano and even jaw harp! The "boing boing" of that in the album's third track may seem humorous, but is really unsettling.
Runic warriors of rock n' roll, Taake join the likes of Kvist, Khold, Nagelfar, Potentiam, and Keep of Kalessin in the ranks of AQ-fave black metal acts that lack the hype of the Emperors and Dimmu Borgirs of the world, but are equally worthy of your attention. So, this album gets a definite thumbs up from AQ's own runic warriors Allan and Andee. It's one they'd play for curious and open-minded non-black-metal fan friends. Meanwhile, black-metal otaku, get this while you wait for the new Satyricon.
In a recent show of photography by Peter Beste devoted to Norwegian black metallers, we were happy to see Taake's Doedsjarl Hoest pictured alongside better known musicans from bands like Immortal, Enslaved and Carpathian Forest. Hoest and Taake certainly deserve to be in such company, and they're definitely one of the current Norwegian bands really keeping the flame of blackened Viking metal flickering. We've been fans of these runic warriors ever since their debut Nattestid... in 1999, getting even more into 'em when their second album ...Bjoergvin... came out three years ago, and now are excited that the third installment in the Taake trilogy, ...Doedskvad, is at last here! (Those other two, by the way, seem to have gone out of print.)
...Doedskvad surely equals its predecessors, upholding tradition (theirs, and that of cold, grim black metal in general) by offering up some seriously epic rasp n' riffage that's mostly majestically midpaced but sometimes thrashes forward at a headbanging, drums-blasting gallop. Really excellent, really cult. Think something along the lines of older Enslaved, with the torched cathedral architecture of Weakling and some Cradle of Filthiness in the vocals. And it should be mentioned that Hoest and comrades Lava, Corax and Mord are joined by a slew of guests, including Helvestekommandant Nattefrost of Carpathian Forest, Taipan of Orcustus and someone amazingly (or amazingly stupidly) named "Discomforter"!
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Taake is back (baake? no, that would sound like "Bach", and Taake is not Bach... though this IS classically grim, as it were... er, on with the review...). Norwegian black metal mastery on display here, as always from the Taake camp. This, their debut for big ol' Century Media, is their fourth full album, and upholds the fuzzy frosty folky foresty feel of majestic, malefic riffage and rasping we'd always loved about this band. Old school and cvlt for sure, with spiralling, deathgrunt thrash on offer during the likes of "Doedsjarl" and "Umenneske" (the latter of which, however, takes a droning, hissing turn into weird moodiness before its eight-plus minutes are up) and as well as a making dynamic dives into melodically catchy breakdowns of downtempo dying gasp rockin', like a wretched Katatonia...
Total pros, Taake manage to mix primitive necro Darkthrone essence with more epic fare, as on the album ending 10:37 "Velg Borg Livet". Buzzing beauty and the battering bombast of Celtic Frost style "ungh!" action coexist here, with craft and conviction. Century Media should certainly be proud to have the "Anti-Human Anti-Life True Norwegian Black Metal" of these guys on the roster.
And we've got to mention the cd art. A black disc, with what look like cookie cutter Christmas tree shapes in white, five of 'em, pointing out from the center in a sort of pentagram arrangement. It's kind of cute.
This disc also includes an Quicktime 'musikkvideo' for the track "Umenneske", but it's one of those live on stage videos that kinda takes away some of the mystery, we were hoping instead for an animated one with those evil Christmas trees or something.
Yay, here's another new solo album by Acid Mothers Temple member Tabata Mitsuru (who also has Zeni Geva and the Boredoms on his heavyweight Japanese underground musician resume). We mentioned this one in our review of his other recent solo disc We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun not long ago, and it's pretty similar, again getting the thumbs up from us, for it's gorgeous, droning blend of guitar, loops, backwards tapes, and noisy (but not too noisy) glitch. The tracks Mahhagogo parts 1 and 2 (with their cute little vocal intros) bookend this disc, being the hissingest, harshest dronewerks here. In between them you'll find four other pieces that are mostly much mellower, prettier and placid... mostly. All instrumentals, made from bits of simple guitar melody and swooshing pulses of gentle psychedelic electronics. The likes of "Hydrozoa" are a lazy drift of ambient abstraction, for a sundappled afternoon nap... So nice! Feedback and distortion transformed into utter, sweet blissfulness.
So, it's been two Tabata Mitsuru albums in a fairly short span of time, but we've been fans of him for forever and by Acid Mothers Temple standards, he's not really that prolific. So, if he keeps doing what he's been doing on these, we'd be happy with a few more this year please!!
FINALLY BACK IN STOCK. THE ULTIMATE DRONE RECORD.
We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second lp which has been unavailable for several years now, but when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossible grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long hairded seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching it drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his instrument, sending a sonic respone, until these messages, these sounds weave into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. ONE OF OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS!!
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