Scott Tuma is easily one of our favorite guitarists, from his stint creating warped and warbly underwater twangscapes in legendary downer country legends Souled American, to his gorgeous solo records of warm hazy Appalachia, so it's nice that Tuma seems to be back on track, after a seemingly long stretch of inactivity. The recent Not For Nobody, which was of course an aQ Record of The Week, and now this, a brand new collaboration with Zelienople's Mike Weis, which manages to take that Tuma sound we love and transform it into something new and different.
Weis is the drummer in Zelienople, and since Zelienople never had much cause for a proper drummer, Weis manages to be super creative behind the kit, or maybe more accurately, with an arsenal of cymbals and gongs and chimes, creating textures and layers more than rhythms. Which is precisely what he brings to this collaboration. Tuma is of course doing what he does best, weaving lush landscapes of sound, his guitar keening and moaning, drifting and twanging, sounding underwater one minute, weightless and spacey the next, those sounds are given a whole new context when paired with Weis's unique percussion. The drums here seem to consist mostly of a sort of soft cacophony, manic skitter, clouds of tinkling chimes, bowed cymbals, the deep tones of BIG cymbals or gongs, plenty of clatter and clang, but all sort of smeared into a living backdrop, reacting and interacting with Tuma's guitar, the result is often like a strange Souled American free jazz mashup, which might not sound good, but actually is, although elsewhere the results are a bit more subtle than that.
The guitars slip from hazy and underwater sounding, to gently shimmering, acoustic guitars unfurl woozy Appalachia, bits of twang, soft strums, all gently laid over a sea of skitter and thump, the deep shimmer of reverberating metals, the result is gorgeously murky and indistinct, less like two players playing off of each other, and more like two people contributing to the same sprawling sound. The first side plays out like the two getting acquainted, a delicate dance, their unique sounds quickly finding common ground and melting seamlessly into each other, culminating in a gorgeous track of hushed minimalism, introducing piano, Weis's percussion kept to a whispered thrum, everything wreathed in lush reverb and delay, so lovely.
The second side, features several longish tracks, where Tuma gets to try something a little more distorted and aggressive, the duo creating extended bouts of deep ominous dronemusic and thick caustic buzz, each player's contributions still distinct, at least with close listening, but step back, and the various parts take on surprising shapes, long stretches of heaving, droning, mesmerizingly meditative and surprisingly fluid drones, that manage to be warm and melodic as well as darkly mysterious.
Packaged in beautiful fold out silk screened sleeves, and LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! ALREADY SOLD OUT!! THESE ARE THE ONLY COPIES WE'LL HAVE, EVER.
It's been a while since we've had a proper full length from Tunnels, aka Nicholas Bindeman, who over the last few years has given us a whole mess of gorgeous, and sadly for the most part all out of print, cd-r's of deep shimmering drone music, abstract minimal freak folk, and everything in between. This latest tape finds Bindeman taking his sound even further into that more songy direction, and we're digging it big time. Fuzzy and psychedelic and woozy and groovy and druggy, mixing looped droning ambience with buzzy hypnotic Spacemen 3 style drug psych, even a bit of Wooden Shjips drug rock, each track seems to be built around a single riff, locked and looped, mesmerizing and tripped out, while all around, guitar leads tangle and super reverbed vocals croon WAY down in the mix, the vibe is sun baked and lysergic, surprisingly rocking too, acoustic guitars unfurl all folkily, before they begin to buzz and suddenly we're in Six Organs or Jack rose territory, a little buzz drenched Appalachia, but infused with plenty of ramshackle foresty tinkle and chime, and there's even some of the old school Tunnels dronemusic happening, but that too is all psychedelic and blown out, reminding us of newer sonic explorers like Expo 70. Needless to say, it's about time folks into all that new fangled modern psych, and abstract krautdrone got hip to Tunnels, this definitely pushes all the same buttons. Expo 70, White Hills, Wooden Shjips, Lamp Of The Universe, Heavy Winged, Sleepy Sun, all that sort of stuff, this is just as heavy and dreamy and trippy and psychedelic and awesome as any of that. Buy this now, and track down the rest of the Tunnels records if you can, this sort of shit can't stay under the radar for much longer.
Super fancy packaging, deluxe 6 panel full color fold out sleeve, with a printed vellum obi, each one hand numbered, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!
More dreamy drones from Portland, Oregon. The second audio document from the man known simply as Tunnels, and the weird thing is, the music actually sort of sounds like tunnels... We have had a few other Tunnels cd-r's, we still have a few in stock, have a look at this week's instock not yet reviewed section, they're all great, but this is the latest, and we actually managed to get enough to actually review and list.
Unlike the self titled cd-r on Yarn Lazer (now out of print, so don't order), which seemed to be mostly low end rumble and minimal drone, Radiant Bodies begins with nothing but vocals, disembodied coos and purrs left suspended in haunting stretches of reverbed shimmer and glitchy percussive skitter. Sounds a bit like Yarn Lazer head honcho Honey Owens' Valet project. The second track continues on in a similar trajectory, billowy smears of melody, over a blurred dentist drill backdrop, a pretty gauze draped over a jagged landscape of hiss and grind. The next track is even more ephemeral, gorgeous spaced out krautrock synth drift a la Popol Vuh or Tangerine Dream, but even more blissed out. In fact very little of the record is low end rumble, instead it's all blown out space rock drift, long glimmering expanses of pulsing minimal sound, meditative and hypnotic and so beautiful.�
Packaged in a mini dvd style plastic sleeve, with full color cover, and full color mini insert.�
This is the second half of legendary Norwegian pop-metal-sleaze merchants Turbonegro's denim and leather, head banging, fist pounding (pun indeed intended) one two reissue punch, the first half being their brilliant breakthrough full-length Ass Cobra. Apocalypse Dudes, recorded in '97 was the maybe-even-better follow-up. Like a Tom Of Finland drawing come to life, Turbonegro channel the spirit of Kiss and Judas Priest, mix in some Alice Cooper and stadium COCK rock, and top it all off with some big moustaches, assless chaps, tight denim pants, sailor outfits and wickedly funny songs: 'Rock Against Ass', 'Don't Say Motherfucker, Motherfucker!', 'Rendezvous With Anus'. Fucking funny and brilliant and totally rocking! Genius!
Desperately needed re-issue of one of the more amazing discs from Norway's kings of gay-sailor-leather-pants-moustache-rides-metallic-punk-rock-sleaze, 1996's "Ass Cobra". How can this band not be your favorite band?!?! They are everything Kiss should have been, and pretended to be (or not to be in terms of sexuality). Big and noisy and glammy and catchy and so fucking funny. C'mon...Ass Cobra? Best album title ever maybe? And how about these song titles: The Midnight Nambla, Denim Demon, I Got Erection, Hobbit Motherfuckers! But don't think for a minute they're some kind of joke band, although the jokes do flow freely. Turbonegro totally have the chops and they completely shred. Heavy metal meets poppy punk, all wrapped up in tight denim and sweaty, studded leather, and ready to rough you up and spank you silly.
Speaking of Ass Cobra, one of Cup's fondest (!?) live show spectacles was seeing Turbonegro at the old Chameleon bar here on Valencia Street back in '97. They pummelled the eyes and eardrums of all in attendance with their unique stage presence. The bizarre pinnacle of the eve came when we heard the crowd gasp (yes, it was audible above the din of the band). We looked up at the stage just in time to see the lead singer turn around, bare ass to the audience, with a bundle (not just one or two) of lit roman candles... er... in there. Jaw-dropping and absolutely unforgettable.
Vocals? Who needs 'em? Not Turing Machine. This exceptional instrumental mathrock band with members of Pitchblende and Vineland gives nods to Shellac, Phil Manley (Trans Am, Golden) and Unwound. A big store favorite. Don't miss it.
Also on vinyl!
The thing about being a modern-day "psych" or "prog" rock band, is that you have 40+ years of rock n' roll (and other) musical history to draw upon, you don't need to just pretend it's 1969 or 1971 or 1978 all over again (though that can be cool too). French band Turzi are definitely open to mixing things up in interesting ways, with no regard to whether it sounds "authentic" or not for the duration, their kitchen sink psych aesthetic pushing many and various buttons for us here in ways that maybe no single other band manages to do! At one moment bringing us blissed-out Frippertronics, at another heavy stoner riffage, sometimes in combination. If we didn't know they were a band, we'd think they were an excellent psych-digging DJ! We thought the mantric synth-rock of their debut, entitled A, was pretty Awesome and now here's their second album, B, and it's even Better (with more of what we liked about A, and nice surprises too). It follows the same track-titling convention of A, where on that album all the songs started with the letter A, here they all start with the letter B, and now for some reason they're all place names as well. Also as with A, much of B is instrumental, but when there are vocals, they've got some famous friends helping out.
We said they mix a lot of different elements into their music - for example, to pick a sequence of songs in near the middle of the disc, "Bombay" begins like a Bomb Squad cut, with a sample from a civil rights era speech, that's mashed up into a hard charging, distorted metallic gallop with urgent organ chords, over which they then crank a killer 'exotic' Eastern sounding riff like something by the Flower Travellin Band, or from the most intense Turkish psych single ever, Turzi really kicking out the jams on this one! But that soon mellows out into the next track, "Bethlehem", a hushed mystic ceremonial trudge akin to The Stooges' most John Cale inspired moment, "We Will Fall" or something by Acid Mothers Temple. But then the next thing you know, next up is "Baltimore", a techno-delic ravey raver, kinda '70s glam too, which we were already gonna say reminded us of Primal Scream, before we realized yes indeed it features guest vocalist Bobby Gillespie, of Primal Scream. Elsewhere, a lot of the songs pulsate immensely with kosmische synth delights, 'cause Turzi are French of course making us think of their countrymen Heldon (and also Air), but also naturally Harmonia and other '70s electronic krautrock brigades...
Wow. Whatever this is, psych or prog or whatever, looking forwards futuristically or backwards retrowise, or sideways even, Turzi has succeeded in synthesizing (with synthesizers!) a whole lot of what we like about both similiar -and- dissimilar artists such as Heldon and Zombi and Diagonal and Astra and AMT and Maserati and Etienne Jaumet and Witch and Circle and Oneohtrix Point Never and Itavayla and GR & The Full Blown Expansion... the icing on the cake is the nearly 10-minute finale "Bamako", all dreamy and droney, made all the more Beautiful by another guest vocalist - Brigitte Fontaine! Sweet.
Right up front, let me just say that the Afghan Whigs were one of my favorite bands on Sub Pop. Sure, Soundgarden were monlithic and heavy, channelling Blue Oyster Cult and Led Zeppelin, and Mudhoney were wild, scum rock stoners trying to be the Stooges, but what the fuck were the Afghan Whigs?! They were sort of jangly indie rock in a way, but the guitars were so brittle and keening, and the mood was so intense and uncomfortably miserable. And then there was Greg Dulli's tortured, miserable whine, spinning tales of drugs and women and misery. Weird and unlikely (especially on Sub Pop, this sure as hell wasn't 'grunge') but so utterly compelling. And they just kept getting better. Culminating in 1993's Gentlemen, the perfect distillation of Dulli's bitter, self loathing, relationship-phobic lyrics and the band's sweeping morose soundscapes, and minor key moody jangle. Unfortunately it was all down hill from there. The Whigs lost their edge and Dulli's R+B obsession turned their caustic rock into a bland, watered down indie rock. There were definitely moments, but for the most part it seemed like the spark was gone. Even the first glimpse of the Twilight Singers a few years back revealed more of the same Whigs' indie R+B whatever.
So this, THIS, is what we've been waiting for. The return of Greg Dulli, the cynical miserable bastard, willing to spill his guts over a gorgeous minor key tableau of moody claustrophobia and suffocating melancholia for all the world to see. Like Arab Strap if they were raised on blue eyed soul and had a little more outward pointing vitriol then self-loathing misery. Sonically reminiscent of the Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen, with sweeping arrangements (including horns, electronic beats, and breathy female backup vocals), intense and uncomfortable lyrics, mostly mumbled but occasionally belted out in anguished howls, and a brutally dark ambience that invades every shadowy corner of this gorgeous record. There are glimmers of hope, but it's that sort of hopeless hope, knowing she'll never come back, and you'll never get out, and it'll never get better, but maybe...if only...
Afghan Whigs / Dulli fans will rejoice with this return to form, but all the rest of you who are into dark and depressing rock ala American Music Club, Red House Painters, Arab Strap and the like should give the Twilight Singers a chance. You can always use a new record to drown your sorrows in.
Along with the revamped Conet Project, here's another no-brainer for a Record Of The Week� We've listed it before, years and years ago, when there was a cd version on Akarma, but this is a much nicer, expanded, official reissue and it's good to give it a proper review for the first time (back then, we merely quoted The Seth Man from Julian Cope's Head Heritage website, waxing rhapsodic about this record, now we'll do it ourselves).
Oh boy. Do you like psychedelia? DO YOU HAVE THIS ALBUM? If not, you're in for a treat, a mindblowing treat. Think Pink was the brilliant solo effort from former Pretty Things drummer John "Twink" Alder, and it's an all-time aQ fave, an all-time underground psychedelic masterpiece, right up there with the essentials from the likes of Amon Duul II, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Sam Gopal, Kaleidoscope, and Tyrannosaurus Rex, and it's just been properly reissued on cd by the UK's Sunbeam label, with a whole bunch of bonus freakery added on. Not that this album NEEDS any bonus freakery, it's about as freaky as you can get to begin with, packed with droning chant, druidic prophecy, spaced-out psych jams, weird twisted pop, and acid-folk ramble. But, too much is never enough, right? So heck, we're happy to have the eight bonus tracks too. More on those later. First, let's discuss the original album itself. As we said, Twink played drums for The Pretty Things, but before that had his own sixties R&B outfit the Fairies. After that band, he was in Tomorrow ("My White Bicycle") with future Yes guitarist Steve Howe, around 1967. Twink then briefly formed a duo called The Aquarian Age, before joining up with The Pretty Things and appearing on their concept-album classic S.F. Sorrow in '68, another aQ fave. At that point, for some crazy reason (things were different/better back then) Twink was offered a deal by Sire to do a solo album, and Think Pink was the glorious, if at the time somewhat unheralded, result, recorded in 1969 with Mick Farren of The Deviants producing. Released in 1970 in the US & Europe, but not 'til '71 in the UK, it's been called the first Pink Fairies album, and in a way it is, as soon after making it, Twink did team up with several ex-members of The Deviants, most of whom played on this, to form that infamous proto-punk outfit. And several tracks here feature contributions from what's credited as "The Pink Fairies Motorcycle Club & All Star Rock & Roll Band".
Also participating are several of Twink's Pretty Things bandmates, his girlfriend Silver Darling, and Steve Peregrin Took, Marc Bolan's partner in Tyrannosaurus Rex and early T-Rex, who plays, among other things, "pixie horn". And one of the most crucial contributors to Think Pink, besides Twink himself, has to be guitarist Paul "Blackie" Rudolph, who really lets loose, earning a hallowed place in the annals of distortodelic guitar wrangling for his work on this album alone (though in the course of his career before and after, he also played with The Deviants, Pink Fairies, Hawkwind, Robert Calvert, and Brian Eno).
Eastern-tinged opener "The Coming Of The Other One" sets the scene, pulling us deep into its trippy Aquarian Age fantasy zone, with a solemn voice reciting Nostradamic verses ("In the year 1999 and seven months, from the skies shall come an alarming powerful king...") accompanied by tablas and sitar. Then comes Think Pink's biggest "hit" as far as we're concerned, an utterly perfect slice of stonery psych called "10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box", just listen to it! That's followed by "Dawn Of Magic" with its raga-like vocal ahhhaaaaahh sounds as if Pandit Pran Nath were on the mic, which suddenly segues into the space-out sike-pop of "Tiptoe On The Highest Hill", a lovely pastoral song that eventually builds into a howling guitar blow-out of the highest order. Then the trippy "Fluid" chimes into being, with its sexy heavy breathing and slinky, springy grooves, making us think of the acid-fried hippy orgasms of krautrockers Brainticket's classic Cottonwood Hill (released later on, in '71, we should also note).
Side two (track six here) opens with the martial fuzz-freakout of "Mexican Grass War", all chanting freaks and wild FX like early Amon Duul and Edgar Broughton Band. The freaky vibes continue, quite weird and wonderful, with the glammed up jam of "Rock An'Roll The Joint", the mellow morbid acoustic strum of "Suicide" and the maniacal "Three Little Piggies", before the album ends with the intense edgy psych pop of "The Sparrow Is A Sign", a song with a malevolent, sinister side to it that reminds us a little bit of Comus - and strangely too of the Sun City Girls, perhaps due to the vocals, provided by Steve Took.
Then, there's all those bonus tracks, the first two of which are actually from the lone 7" single released in '68 by The Aquarian Age, the immediate precursor to the Think Pink project. There's the A side, being the original version of "10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box", and the B side, an amusing number called "Good Wizard Meets Naughty Wizard", which displays just the sort of twee, hippie British humor the title suggests. It's great to hear both of those, and the bonus tracks proliferate further with unreleased, alternate versions of more Think Pink material, somewhat heavier or rawer or definitely different, including two takes of "Fluid" and another version of "10,000 Words...", which we can't get enough of anyway.
All in all, a nicely done reissue, as this deserves, with pages and pages of newly-written, informative liner notes, plus lyrics, credits, vintage photos & graphics. Plus, unlike that previous Akarma version, this is a fully-legit release, done with the participation of Twink himself ("issued under exclusive license from Mohammed Abdullah John Alder, February 2013" it says here, and there's even a picture of him today too - apparently he's become a Muslim, and looks quite happy).
By the way... Nobody here at aQ can think about Think Pink, though, and not also think about our "customer" whom we call The Twink Think Pink Guy. We don't believe he's ever actually bought anything, but he's this older guy that comes in once in a while (and has for years) and always, always, ONLY asks about Think Pink, whether we have it in stock or not, and then talks at great length to anyone who will listen about how great it is. It's his favorite record apparently, but don't let that dissuade you, if you get this you probably won't end up like him. Probably.
Message for The Twink Think Pink Guy, if you're reading this: we expect to see you soon!
The Snowbringer Cult was a double cd originally released way back in 2008 on the Students of Decay label, and was the first proper cd release from French bedroom drone-psych-folk epic from Natural Snow Buildings, the boy/girl duo of Mehdi Amaziane and Solange Gularte, that double cd included a NSB full length, as well as an album from each of their solo projects, those being Isengrind and Twinsistermoon. That double cd is finally available again, but has also been reissued on vinyl for the first time, with each of the three parts being released separately as its own record.
Natural Snow Buildings have been a band since WAY back in 1999, toiling quietly WAY underground, and over the course of the last decade plus, have only really released a handful of records, and in the first 6 or 7 years, they only managed 4 cd-r's and two tapes, the total number of copies of all 6 of those releases hovering at about 250. That's insane! At the time we couldn't help wonder how a band with such a small catalog, that has reached so few ears, could generate so much fanboy freakout?! But that's precisely what happened. And thankfully, and perhaps surprisingly, in the case of NSB, and the two solo offshoots, the hype does not seem unwarranted. The freaking out more than merited. The music of Amaziane and Gularte is definitely something special, much more than the usual generic fx laden droned out abstract cd-r floor-core that seems to be constantly flooding the scene, this duo write actual songs, and create gorgeous soundscapes, they mix raga-like psyche with fluttery folk, deep drones with pristine pop, weaving it all together into something spectacular.
Mehdi begins the Twinsistermoon record with a sound that perfectly compliments Solange's Isengrind record (and makes it obvious why the two work so well together in NSB), long drawn out glimmering high end tones, draped over a dark minor key folky strum, and simple percussion, while Mehdi's feminine sounding falsetto soars over the top, all infused with some sort of freaky folky Wickerman vibe. Gorgeous and haunting. That track is followed up by a short chunk of perfect dreamfolk, simple folky strum, and Mehdi's crystal clear vocals, ringing out, pure and impossibly high, if you didn't know better you might think this was some rare track by some lost seventies female folkie.
And so it goes, tracks weaving back and forth, from warm washed out blissy dreamy dronescapes, to simple stripped down folk, often the two sounds drifting into each other, cross pollinating, the folk songs short and seemingly serving to separate the longer sprawling expanses of drone and shimmer, the two sounds dramatically different, but somehow complimenting one another perfectly.
Q: What album contains the best heavy metal song ever written about a snow leopard? A: This one!!
Virginia's TTD has been around for a long time, in the "true metal" underground, with releases going as far back as 1996 (a split 7" with cult doomsters Cold Mourning in fact) but this is the first album of theirs that's really blown us away. Maybe it's their new, improved vocalist. Maybe it's the injection of seemingly arena-ready '80s metal POPPINESS that he's brought with him, y'know, catchy choruses, even amidst all of TTD's usual OTT speedy shred action. Or maybe it's the inspired cheesiness of the cover art (featuring that aforementioned snow leopard) and the "Snow Leopard" song itself. You gotta love a song with lines like "I'm a snow leopard, I live a wild and crazy life" and "I'm calling all cats to sink some claws in some backs", not to mention the soaring chorus that goes "Snow leopard run! Run snow leopard run!"
With this unabashedly bold, bright and energetic album, TTD catapults into the top of the "New Wave Of Old School Heavy Metal" pack, next to the likes of Cauldron and Enforcer, where maybe they belonged all along. Pick it up and revel in the power and the glory. The vocals, an in-your-face falsetto. The guitars holding hints of classic Thin Lizzy, and of course Iron Maiden. Total singalong power metal, gallant and galloping. We're lovin' it.
William Tyler has spent the last decade plus as a touring guitar player for both Nashville indie country combo Lambchop, and indie rockers the Silver Jews, but here on Impossible Truth he strikes out on his own, and comes up with something that harkens back to a different age, several different ages in fact, the obvious reference is the guitar soli / early Appalachia of folks like John Fahey, Leo Kottke and Robbie Basho, but imagine that sound filtered through something more Laurel Canyon-y, for a sort of seventies psychedelia, the sound evoking wide open expanses, big sky country, the soundtrack to a meandering drive in a big old car, top down, on single lane roads winding through rolling green hills, no destination, endless possibilities. Opener "Country Of Illusion" adds a bit of raga to the mix, giving the sound an exotic droney vibe, with a little bit of an Eastern tinge, but soon, a subtly rhythmic pulse, some slippery slide, a little bit of twang, and it's a whole different world, we're hearing Morricone, Pell Mell, James Blackshaw, all woven into a heady bit of sun dappled psychedelic folk, that is pretty divine. Steve Reich and Terry Riley may also be influences.
The mood darkens a bit on the "Geography Of Nowhere", the tones wreathed in reverb and delay, the sound looped and layered, minor key and melancholy, but then like the first track, the sound opens up, the mood shifts, as of the clouds parted revealing nothing but blue skies. The record tends toward dense melodic tangles and mesmerizingly repetitive arrangements, with the tone and timbre constantly changing between songs, some lush and warm, rich and lustrous, others more crystalline and high end, more shimmer and glimmer, all culminating in the closer, which might be the weirdest track of all, it starts out a sort of loping Western style Americana, looped melodic figures drifting over swoonsome slide and lush chordal swells, but then in creep what sound like horns, and maybe fiddles? The melodies get more playful, the slide more slippery, the sounds soar and swoop, the horns moaning and bleating, before finally exploding into a full on heavy psych drum heavy noise drenched freakout, the drums driving and motorik, beneath a cloud of roiling psych guitar tangle, that eventually fades out, into a shimmery sprawl of pulsing, echo drenched abstract guitar drift.
And everyone who buys a copy of Impossible Truth, cd OR vinyl, will be entered into a raffle to win a VERY RARE test pressing of the record!!
William Tyler has spent the last decade plus as a touring guitar player for both Nashville indie country combo Lambchop, and indie rockers the Silver Jews, but here on Impossible Truth he strikes out on his own, and comes up with something that harkens back to a different age, several different ages in fact, the obvious reference is the guitar soli / early Appalachia of folks like John Fahey, Leo Kottke and Robbie Basho, but imagine that sound filtered through something more Laurel Canyon-y, for a sort of seventies psychedelia, the sound evoking wide open expanses, big sky country, the soundtrack to a meandering drive in a big old car, top down, on single lane roads winding through rolling green hills, no destination, endless possibilities. Opener "Country Of Illusion" adds a bit of raga to the mix, giving the sound an exotic droney vibe, with a little bit of an Eastern tinge, but soon, a subtly rhythmic pulse, some slippery slide, a little bit of twang, and it's a whole different world, we're hearing Morricone, Pell Mell, James Blackshaw, all woven into a heady bit of sun dappled psychedelic folk, that is pretty divine. Steve Reich and Terry Riley may also be influences.
The mood darkens a bit on the "Geography Of Nowhere", the tones wreathed in reverb and delay, the sound looped and layered, minor key and melancholy, but then like the first track, the sound opens up, the mood shifts, as of the clouds parted revealing nothing but blue skies. The record tends toward dense melodic tangles and mesmerizingly repetitive arrangements, with the tone and timbre constantly changing between songs, some lush and warm, rich and lustrous, others more crystalline and high end, more shimmer and glimmer, all culminating in the closer, which might be the weirdest track of all, it starts out a sort of loping Western style Americana, looped melodic figures drifting over swoonsome slide and lush chordal swells, but then in creep what sound like horns, and maybe fiddles? The melodies get more playful, the slide more slippery, the sounds soar and swoop, the horns moaning and bleating, before finally exploding into a full on heavy psych drum heavy noise drenched freakout, the drums driving and motorik, beneath a cloud of roiling psych guitar tangle, that eventually fades out, into a shimmery sprawl of pulsing, echo drenched abstract guitar drift.
And everyone who buys a copy of Impossible Truth, cd OR vinyl, will be entered into a raffle to win a VERY RARE test pressing of the record!!
Here's a surprise from the Siltbreeze camp. Not that Siltbreeze hasn't dabbled in pop in the past, but it's been a while since they've released something this catchy. Lo-fi, but not like the current crop of shit gazers, punk rock, but not like PUNK, and pop, but not sugary sweet, Tyvek are twisted, slightly damaged, off kilter, fractured punk pop. Or something like that. The label name drops Mekons, Urinals, Feelies, Velvet Underground, and yeah, those bands are obviously influences, we also hear some Strapping Fieldhands (also once on Siltbreeze) as well as various New Zealand combos. For all it's fucked up weirdness, and willful stumble, these are some incredibly catchy songs, simple spare drumming, guitars that clang and chime and crunch, and vocals that strain to hit the high notes, sounding earnest and emotional, and fuck, hooks galore, some of these songs will stick in your head like CRAZY.
And even though it's not quite the same sort of thing, all of you into Blank Dogs, Psychedelic Horseshit, Times New Viking, The Intelligence, Gary War and all that garage-y shit-fi might just dig this too...
The U-Men were one of our (our being Allan and Andee) favorite bands from the legendary and long out of print Deep Six compilation that chronicled the early days of grunge and the Seattle scene (w/ Melvins, Green River, Malfunkshun, Skin Yard, Soundgarden). But the U-Men wern't really grunge, they were more like a spazzier more hyperactive and sort of new wave Mudhoney. A weird sort of garagey punk that has more in common with the Oblivians or the Monomen than the SubPop sound, but weirder and crazier. Early '80s Seattle "jazzed-out, surfed-up, dada-swamp" art-punk you might have missed at the time, but now, through the magic of cd technology, able to fuck you up either again or for the first time. This disc collects everything they ever recorded; album, singles and compilation tracks, including their song from "Deep Six". Recommended.
Having your head dipped in some sort of molten hallucinogenic liquid...or steamrollered by a flying saucer.... or headbanging with Lovecraftian gods somewhere far out in the ocean of space... that's our meagre attempt to colorfully describe the experience of enjoying this slab of psychedelic stoner doom rock, the 1999 debut disc from Italy's UFOmammut! Chances are, though, that you have some idea already about this might sound like, 'cause UFOmammut's other album, the mighty Snailking, was immediately crowned as an Aquarius Record of the Week when it came out last year, and is still a steady seller hereabouts. Hopefully you already got one of those. This too, we've had before, but it's been out of print for quite a long time and only just got reissued. We figured that since folks liked Snailking so much, and Godlike Snake was just as good, and could easily have been missed out upon the first time around, we shouldn't pass up the opportunity to relist this and make it a Record of the Week as well now that it's back in print. After all, the whole reason we were so instantly amped on Snailking when it came out was in part 'cause we'd been waiting for it for, literally, years, after being blown away by the band's first album, this one. Our review of Godlike Snake ran something like this: "...this stoner rock band is a good 'un, taking a way spacier route to the Dopethrone than most. Wonderfully heavy and mesmerizing, with loads of effects, Moog, and (pardon the expression) "fat" churning drone-grind-groove... A new fave for us in the stoner/doom realm... Especially recommended for those that miss the old Monster Magnet sound, or relish the idea of a heavier Hawkwind." Listening to it now (which a bunch of us have been doing *every day* in the store), we're if anything EVEN MORE into it. Something we hadn't noticed before was how some tracks come across like Godflesh or early Killing Joke melded to Hawkwind. Crushing and enveloping and sooooooo good. It's like Electric Wizard gone spacerock, or an industrialized Dead Meadow.
As with its original incarnation, this includes a trippy video track for the song "Where?" for those with computers. It's now packaged in a standard jewelbox, instead of a cardboard digipack, but the artwork remains pretty much the same. If you like heaviness like we do, don't miss it this time!! Definitely to be considered an AQ doom/sludge/psych ESSENTIAL.
Two new releases this week from aQ pal, and longtime favorite Steven R. Smith, in his latest Ulaan guise, the other is a reissue of a long out of print double cassette originally released on Brave Mysteries, and this one, which is a brand new recording, two sprawling, nearly twenty minute tracks. The first opens with a soft cacophony of bells, before some mournful fiddle, wreathed in reverb, and set atop soft billows of low end thrum, a gorgeous, haunting threnody, which gradually blossoms into a sort of swampy folky dirge, immediately reminiscent of Woven Hand / Sixteen Horsepower. But soon, the strum dissipates, leaving, long tones, lushly layered atmospheres, abstract percussion, and soft shimmers, the vibe dusky and windblown, a little bit twangy, easy to imagine, a landscape painted in reds and oranges from the setting sun, and the slowly encroaching shadows. Soon the strings sweep back in, and the sound is transformed into an almost baroque sounding darkfolk drift, underpinned by swoonsome chordal swells, and sitar like drones, giving the sound an almost raga like vibe. After a bit of distorted psychedelia, the sound settles into a strummy, drifty finale, again, lots of twang, and some crackling electric guitar buzz. Moody and mesmeric. The second track starts off all campfire Appalachian folk, before quickly mutating into a droned out tribal drift, muted pulsing rhythms, beneath soft swirls and layered drones, another sort-of-raga, but with some psych-kraut like propulsion, which gives way to some broody gypsy folk, still wreathed in drones, washed out and woozy, a hazy sprawl of dark dream-drone psych folk ambience, that gradually becomes more and more Appalachian again, lots of buzzy twang, long tones, and lush overtones, all over a bed of softly roiling rumbles, and a hushed, distant, slow fading soft psych finale, before those opening bells return...
Housed in super swank, silkscreened Stumptown cardstock sleeves. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered.
Originally released as an ultra limited (just 100 copies) double cassette on Brave Mysteries in 2013, this sprawling songsuite from longtime fave and aQ pal Steven R. Smith, gets new life in the form of this not so limited cd, and finds Smith, slightly altering his constantly in flux Ulaan monicker, conjuring up 4 side long (at least on the original tape) sprawls of haunting, contemplative, abstract, psychedelic drift. Fans of Smith's other recordings will immediately feel right at home, plaintive piano, soft shimmering swells, chiming bells, softly moaning strings, the sound slowly unfurling and blossoming, moving from a freeform psychedelic dronescape, to a brooding dark folk balladry, to a murky minimal softnoise drift, to hushed droned wreathed steel string strum, a sort of droned out Appalachia, to lush string swaddled epic psych folk majesty and finally to a lush, layered raga-like ambience, that gradually fades into silence. And that's just the first side/track! The other three tracks are equally epic and mesmerizing, darkly melodic, hauntingly psychedelic, lush and lovely, the sort of endless epic psychedelia that is so easy to get swept away by, a few minutes into any of the tracks here, you'll find yourself gloriously lost in Smith's mysterious soundworld, drifting weightlessly above fields of Appalachia flecked droned, or softly submerged beneath dreamlike billows of serene psychedelia, or propelled by heady sprawls of minimal psych-kraut mesmer. As always, FANTASTIC!
Housed in super swank, silkscreened Stumptown cardstock sleeves. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered.
We LOVED the previous Umberto album, From The Grave, and are stoked that he/they/it have finally returned with another full length packed with oodles of Goblin-y goodness, just in time for Halloween!!
But the sound of the Expo 70-associated Umberto is not strictly that scary, at least not all the time, in fact, like Goblin and other '80s Italian fright-film soundtrackers, most of the scary stuff here is really just an *underlying* un-ease, a sinister suspenseful undercurrent over which more "groovy" stuff gets down. And way more groovy this one most definitely is, some serious haunted dancefloor action, or horror movie disco, or whatever you want to call it, but Umberto has for sure upped the funk/groove quotient, lacing the usual cocktail of thick, tense, pulsing synth throb, minimal motorik rhythms and heavy ominous drones with plenty of funky basslines, crunchy modulated keyboard buzz, soaring synths, chanted voices and propulsive grooves... Here and there, the sound gets all stripped down leaving just gurgly, crumbly distorted low end peppered with spaced out booming rhythms, or creepy ambient atmospheres, but the songs tend to slip quickly back into haunted shuffly rhythms, woozy horror movie atmospherics, ominous strings laced funky grooves and dark descending bass blarp.
The second side begins with one of those tracks that sounds like the music that always introduces us to the main character in all those seventies thrillers, the little girl playing with her dollies, the old woman in the garden, the sound is tranquil but subtly sinister, here it's a music box like melody, plinking dreamily beneath haunting strings, and soft swirls of creepy voice like synth, total horror movie soundtrack shivers for sure.
After that it's back to wah guitars, chiming bells, groovy Italo funk haunted dancefloor grooviness, but this time with some cool washed out M83 style female vocal textures, a shoegazey gauze over that propulsive Goblin-y groove.
If we had to pick a single song that was THE ONE here, it would probably be "Someone Chasing Someone Through A House" which sounds exactly LIKE THAT, pulsing throbbing synths, electronic squelches, deep ominous drones, dark swells, foreboding and creepy and tense and SCARY!
The album ends with an upbeat track entitled "Everything Is Going To Be Ok", all sun-coming-up, yay we survived the zombie onslaught good cheer & cheesiness. The sort of music that plays over the closing credits, or even better, over the final shot which lulls you into a sense of false security, before a decaying hand bursts through the ground, or a beast explodes from the water and drag our heroine out of the boar, some sort of shock to let you know that evil won't stay buried... which of course usually leads to a sequel, and we are definitely looking forward to the next installment of groovy Gobliny sonic scares from Umberto!
Holy shit, this is so fucked up, but in all the right ways. And thus, becomes our first ever CASSETTE Record Of The Week! One of those records that had EVERYone here sorta freaking out. And on it's first spin in the store, had all the folks in the back rushing up front to see what the heck was playing!
Un Festin Sagital are an occult prog-metal / angular post-punk / psychedelic free noise / black ambient orchestra out of Santiago, Chile that can strip down to the touring essentials of just flute, acoustic guitar, and voice, when need be, in bellowing their complex tales of a forthcoming lysergic apocalypse. But here, it's the full sonic onslaught of Satanic chanting, frenzied tribal rhythms, heavy anthemic riffs, acid-crazed arrangements, and witch/warlock vocals that sound as if they were recorded at the wrong speed, all dotted with some rather pretty moments of psychedelic impressionism. Diabolically strummed flamenco guitar riffs erupt into blisteringly rhythmic assaults of start/stop rhythms that are equal parts King Crimson, Comus, and Uz Jsme Doma. Or imagine Dutch punks the Ex crossed with aQ Record Of The Weekers Yamantaka // Sonic Titan!! A sound that somehow simultaneously reminds us of bedeviled Eastern European peasant folk songs that could very well be possessed gypsy curses from some remote old world village in a muddled sonic palette that also evokes the Art Bears mixed with ritualistic Hindustani vocal modulations, or the Vietnamese girls on Holgar Czukay's "Boat Woman Song". The sound washed out under layers of tape decay and warble, the music seemingly patched together and reassembled in beautiful, yet twisted psych-folk interludes which meander between the volatile rhythmic outbursts with wah-wah inflected, acidic guitar lines and long dizzying sprawls of cinematic creep and kosmische electronics, creating spellbinding atmospheres and gorgeously stunning modern avant heaviness. Strange, fucked-up stuff. Supposedly a full length is in the works for Beta-Lactum Ring. C40. Limited to 100 copies! And so totally recommended!!
This Chilean band holds the distinction of being the first band to get an Aquarius CASSETTE Of The Week award. Their Bestias Solares tape on Black Horizons so blew everyone here away, we couldn't not make it thus. And we later reviewed their double cd on Beta-Lactam Ring too, both of those records displaying this strange group's sound, a sound which found us describing the group, not at all succinctly, as an "occult prog-metal / angular post-punk / psychedelic free noise / black ambient orchestra". That's a pretty crazy and over the top description, but the this is a pretty crazy, over the top outfit, and we're happy to report, that they haven't gotten any less crazy this time around, in fact, to these ears, they keep getting weirder and weirder. The brief opener is all chanted monk-like vocal harmonies wrapped in warped, woozy electronics, hand-clappy drum machines, witchy female vocals, garbled speaking in tongues, strange FX, and while you might think it was just a weird intro, the next song continues down into the sonic rabbit hole, murky bass squelch, a pulsing almost techno beat, more swirling electronics, grunted demonic vocals, accompanying atonal piano pound, that piano exploding into wild psychedelic squiggles, while the rest of the track sounds submerged in fields of static, the result is a sort of warped, woozy, blackened, electro avant techno chamber music? Or something. It's sort of gothic, definitely freaky and fucked up, sort of electronic, whatever it is, we dig it, a LOT!
The third track is a creaking, crumbling drone, that sounds like it could be some lost Nurse With Wound outtake, all deep dirge-y tectonic thrum, sounds like recordings of motorcycles or moaning docks, blurred into dense sonic swells, shot through with distant minor key melodies, dark and meditative, and a bit haunting as well. And finally, things finish off with another brief blast of WTF weirdness, deep drone-y thrum, under spacey synths, plucked pizzicato melodies, swirling wind like whirs, bizarre glitchy percussion, and near the end, primitive drum machine, and glimmering fields of sci-fi planetarium show electronics. So twisted. And so good.
And like all Black Horzions tapes, super fancy packaging, four panel J-card, offset silver printing on bronze metallic paper, purple tapes, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!
As we wait anxiously for a new full length from these aQ beloved psychedelic stoners (as well as their first ever SF show coming up soon!), for now we have one new track to tide us over. And fear not, it's a groovy good one. Nothing new really, but then we didn't actually want any sort of massive seismic sonic shift, we just wanted MORE, and that's just what you get. A new track called "Runaway Girls" that sounds like it could have been plucked right off of either of their albums proper, with a cool slithery riff, distorted wailing vocals, super melodic Sabbathy basslines, shambolic drumming, wild psychedelic leads and gorgeous guitar harmonies, the whole thing all warm and washed out and dreamily distorted, sounding like it could have been transported from some hard rocking alternate universe sixties, the song twisting and turning, from almost metallic riffing, to shimmery, melodic drift and back again.
The flipside is an acoustic version of what might have been our favorite track from Mind Control, that record's closer "Devil's Work", here recast as something darkly dreamy, and hauntingly folky, the track still fantastic, but more hushed and moody, like some lost Wicker Man track, or some deep cut by an ultra obscure seventies British acid folk combo. Cool!
SUPER DUPER LIMITED!! The batch we got is on blue vinyl, but hard to say if we'll be able to get more when we run out, and what color the next batch will be. And oh yeah, it's a pretty pricey import!
So I'm going to try and not gush too much. I don't want to come across like a 13 year old girl reviewing the newest N-Sync record. But it's kind of hard to be objective when you're trying to turn people on to one of your all time favorite bands. And Uncle
Their debut, 'No Depression' was a furious amalgam of punk rock and country, with guitars on 10, crashing drums and some totally intense songs (check out the sound clips for 'Whiskey Bottle' and 'Graveyard Shift' from that record). They managed to capture a midwestern working man's hopelessness so perfectly that the songs spoke to you even if you lived in the city and had never even seen a tractor.
Their second record 'Still Feel Gone' continued along the same lines but with a little less aggression and a little more melody. Their third record marked a big shift in their sound and direction, when they enlisted Peter Buck of R.E.M. to help them record a record of traditionals (Coal Miners songs and the like) as well as some acoustic (traditional sounding) originals (check out the sound clip for 'Fatal Wound').
Their fourth and sadly last record 'Anodyne' is the record where everything fell into place. The music was pefect. So was the production, and they were finally selling lots of records. A lot of folks criticise 'Anodyne' for being too professional and too polished, but it seems to me, that's where they were headed all along. Top rate players, a gorgeously lush production and probably the best songs of their career helped push them even further into the public eye (check out the sound clip for 'Chickamauga'). But unfortunately for us, that was to be it. The two main songwriters (who by that point essentially wrote their own songs and brought them completed to the band) just needed to follow their own muses. So Jay Farrar went on to form Son Volt and now performs solo, and Jeff Tweedy went on to start Wilco, who are currently in major label hell with an finished record that the label stupidly deemed unreleasable. (The album in its entirety is available for download from Wilco's website, and reportedly over a hundred thousand people have downloaded it!)
So while there -are- plans to eventually release their first three albums, those of you who have never heard Uncle Tupelo might want to pick this up, at least until the original albums are finally released. And those of you who, like me, are Uncle Tupelo obsessives, will find plenty of reasons to own this (two bonus tracks, a demo and a thouroughly Tupelo-ized version of the Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' as well as loads of photos and liner notes). And anyone who is at all into "alt. country" and listens to the Palace Brothers, and Songs:Ohia and Red Red Meat and Califone really owes it to themselves to check out Uncle Tupelo. You won't be sorry.
And if you decide to heed our advice and look for the full albums, Uncle Tupelo's last record, 'Anodyne' , their last and perhaps best, -is- still available and we can not recommend it highly enough.
Finally after years of waiting, the Uncle Tupelo back catalog gets the deluxe reissue treatment it so deserves. Belleville, Illinois' favorite sons almost single handedly made it okay for indie rockers to don sparkly jean jackets and publicly profess their love of all things Byrds and Gram Parsons, creating in the process a genre that would carry on their proud tradition to this day. From the gorgeously-twangy-country-intertwined-with-raucous-punk-rock of their early days to the lush-and -perfect-Nashville-via-Midwestern-backwater -country/bluegrass of their final years, no one can hold a candle to Farrar and Tweedy, the dynamic duo whose different (but equally compelling) songwriting styles and dramatically disparate voices helped form the foundation for one of the greatest rock bands (or country rock bands) of the last decade.
Record number three was the record where it all changed. Where Uncle Tupelo became first and foremost, a country outfit. Many thought this was a one off experiment, but as their next and final record Anodyne would prove beyond any shadow of a doubt, they were country through and through. Produced by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck March 16-20 was all acoustic and sounded like a record of traditionals, which it sort of was, even though only five tracks were -actually- traditionals. The originals here are so perfect, timeless and...well.. traditional sounding, with Farrar and Tweedy spinning tales of coal mines, railroads, Satan, murders, and that new fangled atomic power. Mandolin, banjo, pedal steel, slide guitar, violin, accordion and even bouzouki all added to the gorgeous stripped down sound of a band not only at their peak, but so obviously having fun, playing songs, and the kind of songs, they truly loved. Lots of photos and liner notes.
Bonus tracks: 'Take My Word' from a 1992 7", 'Moonshiner (Live 1/24/93)' from a 1994 compilation, and 4 unreleased tracks from 1991 demo recorded in a kitchen: "Grindstone (1991 Longview Farm Acoustic Demo)', 'Atomic Power (1991 Longview Farm Acoustic Demo)', the Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog (1991 Longview Farm Acoustic Demo)' and 'The Walton's (Theme) (1991 Longview Farm Acoustic Demo)'.
Finally after years of waiting, the Uncle Tupelo back catalog gets the deluxe reissue treatment it so deserves.Belleville, Illinois' favorite sons almost single handedly made it okay for indie rockers to don sparkly jean jackets and publicly profess their love of all things Byrds and Gram Parsons, creating in the process a genre that would carry on their proud tradition to this day. From the gorgeously-twangy-country-intertwined-with-raucous-punk-rock of their early days to the lush-and -perfect-Nashville-via-Midwestern-backwater -country/bluegrass of their final years, no one can hold a candle to Farrar and Tweedy, the dynamic duo whose different (but equally compelling) songwriting styles and dramatically disparate voices helped form the foundation for one of the greatest rock bands (or country rock bands) of the last decade.
This is the record that started it all. Alt-country, No Depression or whatever it's called these days. Named for a Carter Family song and influenced as much by punk rock as folk and bluegrass, No Depression is a wild, rollicking, twangy, thrashy record full of amazing hooks, mournful melodies, and kick ass rock and roll. Never had a rock band managed to make country so cool (the Byrds came close, but I mean a ROCK band, a PUNK ROCK band!), opening up the ears of indie rockers everywhere. Perfectly captures the teen angst and dreary hopelessness of rural midwestern farm life, that no-way-out resignation mixed with just a dash of maybe-I-won't-end-up-like-my-folks-poor-and-miserable. It also introduced us to the amazing songsmithery of Farrar and Tweedy, whose tunultuous partnership would only last a few more years, but who would separately continue on (Wilco, Son Volt) to define the genre they practically invented. Tons of photos and liner notes.
Bonus tracks: The vinyl only bonus track 'Left In The Dark' from the Anthology 2lp, 'Won't Forget' from the A Matter Of Degrees soundtrack (terrible movie, great soundtrack!), a kick ass cover of the Byrds' 'Sin City' from an old 7", a live acoustic version of 'Whiskey Bottle', a 1988 demo of 'No Depression', and 'Blues Die Hard' from the Colorblind And Rhymeless 1987 demo.
Finally after years of waiting, the Uncle Tupelo back catalog gets the deluxe reissue treatment it so deserves. Belleville, Illinois' favorite sons almost single handedly made it okay for indie rockers to don sparkly jean jackets and publicly profess their love of all things Byrds and Gram Parsons, creating in the process a genre that would carry on their proud tradition to this day. From the gorgeously-twangy-country-intertwined-with-raucous-punk-rock of their early days to the lush-and -perfect-Nashville-via-Midwestern-backwater -country/bluegrass of their final years, no one can hold a candle to Farrar and Tweedy, the dynamic duo whose different (but equally compelling) songwriting styles and dramatically disparate voices helped form the foundation for one of the greatest rock bands (or country rock bands) of the last decade.
This is record number two and for a lot of folks was sort of a let down. Seems to be the fans' least favorite, but with lots of records like that, being the least listened to, it can offer all sorts of treasures when re-assessed. This was definitely a transition record, moving away from their punk rock roots and towards the traditional country they so obviously loved. Consequently, it sort of hovers right in the middle, feeling a little lost. Blunting the thrashy twangy punk they had perfected on their debut and kind of muddying the country/bluegrass trail they were preparing to blaze. My biggest problem was that Jeff Tweedy seemed to step up and take on a lot of the lead vocals. And at that point, Tweedy's whine-y, reedy vocals were only present to be a counterpoint to Jay Farrar's gorgeous whiskey soaked drawl. Since then, I've grown to appreciate Tweedy's vocals a lot more and can appreciate the dual vocalists and how they perfectly complemented each other. But the songs are still here in spades. Catchy and miserably defiant and hopelessly hopeful and just totally great. The fuzzy grungy opener 'Gun' is still one of my favorites. Again lots of photos and liner notes.
Bonus tracks: 'Sauget Wind' from an 1992 7", a fierce cover of The Soft Boys' 'I Wanna Destroy You', and three unreleased demos: 'Watch Me Fall', 'Looking For A Way Out (fast version), and 'If That's Alright (fast acoustic version)'.
Hammers Of Misfortune fans strap yourselves in and get ready to bask Under Satan's Sun!
A while back, drummer and leader of the No Neck Blues Band, Dave Nuss, emailed us wanting to send us a copy of his new band's first record. He thought it was definitely something we would dig. We got it, threw it on, and were blown away. Big time! Classic, epic, blackened TRUE METAL, that definitely sounded a bit like local operatic metal heroes Hammers Of Misfortune. Well, we would later discover that not only did the band indeed LOVE and draw some of their inspiration from Hammers (one band member even sports a HoM shirt in the band photo), but they were in fact fronted by singing sisters from right here in San Francisco. Weird. But it sort of makes sense. SF's fertile metal scene has not only spawned Hammers, but helped nurture East Coast transplants Slough Feg, as well as spawning a whole bunch of bad ass metal bands like Weakling, Ludicra, Leviathan, Horn Of Dagoth, Asunder, we could go on and on. Needless to say, there is no wanting for metal around these parts. SO it makes perfect sense that two sisters from SF might go digging for likeminded metalheads in NYC. Who would have thought that some of those kindred spirits would be Nuss of No Neck and legendary underground painter Arik Mooonhawk Roper among others...?
Regardless of who or why or how, this is simply some seriously epic blackened true metal. Plenty of Sabbathisms abound, the riffs go from buzzing and blasting, to classic eighties crunch, with leads soaring, and some awesomely tangled Maidenesque harmonies, the drumming is powerful but simple. The songs are subtly catchy, epic and majestic, mysterious and classic. But as with most metal bands, it comes down to two things, the riffs, which here pretty much rule, and the vocals, which Under Satan's Sun have down cold, how could they not? Two female metalheads, one able to emit a hellish demonic screech, both able to croon in perfect harmony, occasionally weaving haunting Comus-y parts that totally captivate.�
The best tracks are the ones that sort of push the boundaries, taking the obvious Maiden / Sabbath / Hammers influences, and adding weird proggy workouts and haunting seventies folkiness, "Stand Up And Fight" and "Confessing A Murder" being the best examples, both total classics, the perfect blend of classic eighties metal, seventies style British electric folk, and modern blackened buzz.�
This should definitely hold you over until the next Hammers disc. Or at least until the next Under Satan's Sun record...
ATTENTION LOVERS OF INSANE, DAMAGED, DEMENTED BLACK METAL!!! It's that time again. Another bizarre and fantastically fucked release to blacken your soul and your heart. This German outfit are obviously channeling the spirit of Burzum and Abruptum, but have also inadvertently conjured up some Benighted Leams and some Dead Reptile Shrine, and the result is completely bafflingly brilliant. A single half hour track, an abstract soundscape of stumbling plodding caveman doom drumming, weird warped downtuned riffing, every available space filled with squealing feedback, while above it all some of the most demented howling anguished falsetto vocals ever, a sort of Weakling meets Bethlehem meets Silencer. A lurching plodding blackened doom, the feedback everywhere combined with the tempo almost reminds us of Eyehategod. So if you can imagine some sort of abstract, ambient, slow motion, black metal, doom sludge you'll get at least an idea of what freaked out grim and frosty otherworld these guys inhabit. If you dig ANY of the above mentioned bands, we shouldn't have to tell you, but we will: this is absolutely essential.
Some of you may have heard of Unholy Cadaver. But a LOT of you have heard of Hammers Of Misfortune, San Francisco's best rock-operatic political power prog metal (and more) band, featuring members of Ludicra and (formerly) The Lord Weird Slough Feg, among others. Our own Andee's tUMULt label put out their first album, The Bastard, in 2001. That's been followed by three (or four, depending on how you count, 'cause one was a double!) albums for Cruz Del Sur and Profound Lore. Their entire discography was then recently reissued by Metal Blade, who also signed the band for a new, upcoming opus.
Well, not quite their entire discography... 'Cause before The Bastard, Hammers Of Misfortune were known by another name - Unholy Cadaver. Who recorded an unreleased album back in 1997. They put out a rare demo cd-r at the time, with just three of that album's nine tracks on it, none of which sound like "demos" despite being recorded in the band's practice space. But until now, the entire hour-long recording - which includes a song called "Hammers Of Misfortune", by the way, a nearly 15 minute epic, all of side C here - has never been properly released. The always on top of it (when "it" is cult metal) Shadow Kingdom label has rectified that, and then some, with this limited, deluxe edition of what's essentially the real Hammers Of Misfortune debut, done as a double vinyl lp with cd version also included!
This is where it all started, mastermind John Cobbett & Co.'s unusual, amazing mash up of epic / traditional stylings with "extreme" metal mayhem, with loads of guitar shred, dramatic dynamics, majestic bombast, and an influx of avant garde / black metal weirdness. Unholy Cadaver's line up consisted of Cobbett (guitars/vocals), Chewy Marzolo (drums), still the core of Hammers today. They enlisted several guests for the male and female "operatic" singing parts: Mike Scalzi (of Slough Feg), Erica Stolz (of Lost Goat), and Lorraine Rath (currently in Worm Ouroboros, formerly of The Gault), who also did the cover art and logo. In some sort of quid pro quo, Cobbett joined up for a stint in Slough Feg on 2nd guitar not long afterwards, and Scalzi stayed on with Hammers for their first three albums, playing guitar live as well as singing.
The prototypical Hammers herky-jerky stop-start loud-soft songwriting style is already in full effect, incorporating glorious guitar harmonies and bludgeoning brutality both... with social commentary (and a sense of humor) hidden, or not so hidden, in the often allegorical fantasy lyrics. Signs of their origin in "abso-futurist" metalpunk band Thunderchip remain, both the presence of John's rasping black metallish (and guttural death metallish) vokills (which were dropped entirely after The Bastard), and seemingly silly (but actually serious) song titles/concepts like "Fuck The Galactic Police".
John and Chewy also do clean, sorta chant like vocals on some of the tracks, presumably written/recorded before they had availed themselves of Mike's triumphant baritone, the inimitable sound of which you'll hear here, appropriately enough, on the aforementioned epic "Hammers Of Misfortune", that's where they really become Hammers Of Misfortune! Not that the rest of this doesn't sound like Hammers, it sure does, but the male-female mock-operatic thing utterly comes to the fore, on that tour-de-force of a track (which also features a surprising amount of profanity from Rath's "caged princess" character).
We should also mention the final cut, all of side D, the nine-minute "Kloven Septum", which is more of an experimental, freaked out "noise" composition, but still metal. We expect the unexpected from 'em, but yet it's unlike much else in their discography, and actually we could do with a whole album of this, too! It and the other extreme metal aspects of Unholy Cadaver perhaps could be seen as feeding in to Cobbett's Ludicra project later on, as well.
Eventually Janis Tanaka took over the female vocalist/bass player position from Erica, and with a solid, full band lineup instituted, they relegated these early recordings to the vault, changed the name (good call) and plunged ahead into forging The Bastard... but Unholy Cadaver's long lost album was definitely more than a warm up, hearing the whole thing now we wonder why it took so long for this to finally see the light of day.
Considering that The Bastard happens to be our favorite of the Hammers albums, and this is what led up to it, a most welcome and highly recommended release! And we're guessing it's kind of limited, too. The packaging is quite fancy, a double gatefold lp, with one of the inside panels holding the compact disc version. There's also a 12"x12" insert on some sort of glossy photo-paper, with old b&w pictures of the band back then, complete lyrics, and new liner notes giving the history of UC/HoM. The cover features L. Rath's painting, originally used for the demo cd-r, bigger and better than before, 'cause it's now in full color. Oh and both the vinyl and the cd versions have been individually remastered! Nice work. Epically recommended!!!
We discovered the D-Trash label (and consequently Unitus) via the amazing DHR 'Don't Fuck With Us' compilation from a few lists ago. Unitus is definitely very beat heavy ala DHR, but lays the beats down in a thick, dark miasma of digital crunch and ambient drones and rumbles. Making for an almost dreamy, definitely droney, hypnotic drum and bass workout with stretches of ambient whir, reminding us quite a bit of the seminal Third Eye Foundation 12" 'Semtex' from a few years back. Nice thick analog sounding dirgescapes, with simple, skittery beats woven throughout . Really fucking great! Myabe electronic music isn't dead after all. You just have to know where to look.
Fuck, we love this band. We've only heard one tape from these Canadian electronic black ambient weirdos, but we immediately fell under their spell, and have been dying for new music ever since.
This is the latest tape of their damaged outsider alchemical sonic rituals, and if the first one was mysterious and strange, this one, is fucking baffling. All over the map, and completely wacked.
Opening with some fucked up creepy circusy synths, a buzzy tangle of haunting minor key video game forest drone. Then all of a sudden, they launch into a reverb drenched stumble, the drums blown out and spluttering, the guitar sawing away and emitting a cloud of noxious buzzing riffage, dual vocals, one a black metal rasp, the other a moaning whale call off in the distance. Freaky and super awesome. Those muted percussive thumps get more and more chaotic as the musical tension grows and grows, a lurching dirgey lo-fi doom damage workout. And it keeps getting better. And weirder. The next track is all folky, a strummed acoustic guitar, moaned vocals, all sorts of strange drifting FX, followed up by another acoustic crawl, creeping and slithery, the vocals growled beneath minor key piano plinking. Sheets of electric guitar buzz, insectoid electronic grizzle, huge echoey rumbling baritone moans, more mournful acoustic guitar...
Dense and washed out and fuzzy and murky and muddy and fucking genius. Fans of Dead Reptile Shrine, Circle Of Ouroborus, and other outsider metal outfits should be on all fours, cowering at the feet of Uno Actu, and offering up blood sacrifices as homage. We sure as hell are.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each tape hand numbered.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Along with the delicate beauty of "Imperial ffrrr", "Kustom Karnal Blaxploitation" is by far the best thing Mark Robinson has ever done. Finally available on cd, this is the perfect mix of sweet pop, noisey agit-rock, faux 60's-isms, and the great songwriting that would be the foundation for Teenbeat's early 90's pop indie-monopoly. Worth it alone for the achingly beautiful 'She Makes Me Shake Like A Soul Machine.' Totally essential.
It's been quite some time since Unwound bestowed an album upon us. Finally, the wait is over. And our reward? A double cd! And the good news is, it seems some definite musical growth has taken place in the interim enough to merit the often unnecessary two cd
Disc two starts off with perhaps the biggest surprise, a dark and smoldering mope rock masterpiece that sounds amazingly like American Music Club (or even Red House Painters); swelling strings and muted minor key guitars, dark droning melancholic progressions with strange whale-like sounds in the background. Absolutely lovely. At this point, much like on disc one, things veer back toward the old Unwound days, but with a definite Godspeed influence. Still pounding and rocking, but much more introspective and dramatic. They really made good use of the double cd format, using the extra "room" to explore new territory while not neglecting their signature sound. A really great record, and quite a nice surprise.
We've long loved Japanese psych crew Up-Tight, and this new disc on aQ beloved Brazilian label Essence is another good one, another slab of dark heavy psych from these masters. From the first few seconds, we're hurled into the void: thick, distorted bass, simple, pounding drumming, and wild, shredding, blown out, in-the-red guitar-shred freakout, no preamble, no slow build, just straight into some heart-of-the-the-sun heaviness. The leads do fade out, letting the song breathe a bit, the vibe dialed down a notch, for the echo drenched vocals to drift in, and suddenly, it's like a super distorted, even more blown out Les Rallizes Denudes, and before you know it, that guitar swoops in, and whips the song into a noise drenched Japanoise-psych squall. But as fans know, it's not all freakout, these guys are capable of brooding beauty, which is what the second track offers, a woozy crooning drift, a dark psych ballad, all wreathed in reverb, it's not until the last minute that things get at all heavy, wild vocalizations, swirls of guitar noise, a quick blast, and then right back into the dark chanted creep that began the track. Two of the remaining three tracks are more pretty than heavy, the first, a dreamy bit of sun dappled jangle, that almost sounds more like American slowcore than Japanese psych, the second, a brief bit of dark strum, murky, and haunting, hushed and mysterious. And then right in between, the nearly 16 minute "So Alone", which is ALL noisy and distorted, a churning death march pound, swirls of jagged feedback, arcs of guitarnoise, the guitars grinding and howling, fields of skree and shriek, hurts of face melting buzz and shred, all the while the bass and drums, locked into a churning, doomic pound, the vocals too wild and feral, doused in FX and battling the wild guitarnoise. Awesome!
Along with a new record from one of our favorite purveyors of kosmische kraut-psych and spaced out synthscapery, Expo '70 (found elsewhere on this week's list) there's another new release, from Japanese psych crew Up-Tight, also on aQ beloved Brazilian label Essence, and like that Expo '70, this is in fact a PRE-ORDER for the super deluxe, super fancy, handmade BOX SET version, which comes not only with a bonus disc, but also housed in a crazy handmade box. It's limited to 91 copies and that's IT. We might be able to get 15, but even then, we're only getting as many as we get pre-orders for, so if you want one, order it now, we'll get them in sometime in the next few weeks, and they can either ship with your current order, or on their own. You will be charged for the box NOW, but then the shipping will be sorted out when we actually send the box (and it'll ship by weight, not as 1 item).
We've long loved Up-Tight, and this new one is another good one, if you're already a fan, maybe a super fan, odds are you're gonna want one of these, the box is super striking, all bird beaks and eyes, in an oversized, handmade boxset, that unfolds revealing still more artwork, along with a hand drawn third eye canvas collage. And along with the new record proper, it also includes an exclusive bonus album, a cd-r called Sweet Sister Session (Uncut) - For Lucrezia, a whole set recorded in 2004 during the sessions for their Alchemy release Lucrezia, and is ONLY available in this box. So needless to say, Up-Tight nerds grab one before they are gone.
The record itself, The Night Is Yours, is another slab of dark heavy psych from these masters, and from the first few seconds, we're hurled into the void: thick, distorted bass, simple, pounding drumming, and wild, shredding, blown out, in-the-red guitar-shred freakout, no preamble, no slow build, just straight into some heart-of-the-the-sun heaviness. The leads do fade out, letting the song breathe a bit, the vibe dialed down a notch, for the echo drenched vocals to drift in, and suddenly, it's like a super distorted, even more blown out Les Rallizes Denudes, and before you know it, that guitar swoops in, and whips the song into a noise drenched Japanoise-psych squall. But as fans know, it's not all freakout, these guys are capable of brooding beauty, which is what the second track offers, a woozy crooning drift, a dark psych ballad, all wreathed in reverb, it's not until the last minute that things get at all heavy, wild vocalizations, swirls of guitar noise, a quick blast, and then right back into the dark chanted creep that began the track. Two of the remaining three tracks are more pretty than heavy, the first, a dreamy bit of sun dappled jangle, that almost sounds more like American slowcore than Japanese psych, the second, a brief bit of dark strum, murky, and haunting, hushed and mysterious. And then right in between, the nearly 16 minute "So Alone", which is ALL noisy and distorted, a churning death march pound, swirls of jagged feedback, arcs of guitarnoise, the guitars grinding and howling, fields of skree and shriek, hurts of face melting buzz and shred, all the while the bass and drums, locked into a churning, doomic pound, the vocals too wild and feral, doused in FX and battling the wild guitarnoise. So good!
And as we mentioned above, we'll only be able to get about 15 copies of this box, and that's IT. So if you want one, order it now. We'll charge you and let you know when it arrives. If you're after the normal version, let us know that too, and we can put you down for one of those, but this listing is specifically for folks who want to nab one of the boxes before they're gone for good.
Relapse's latest grindcore wunderkinds, California's Uphill Battle manage to hold their own along side of Relapse heavyweights Origin, Burnt By The Sun, Human Remains, Nasum, et al. Chugging, grinding fury, with tense and ridiculously complex song structures, blurry blast beats, blazing downtuned riffs, crushing drums and weird melodic harmonies, while a demented madman howls above the whole thing! Listen to the sound clips, you know if you need this. God knows I do.
Get your nose back in those math books 'cause Upsilon Acrux are back. Slowly simmering tension builders of abstract, prog-y, post rock-ification. Proggy and chaotic, stop/start mayhem and ultra complicated instrumental workouts. Dark, repetitive rhythms ripped
The world has been dying for more Urfaust, well, at least out little freaky blackened damaged corner of the world. We couldn't get enough of these guys, their creepy lurching Burzumy metal, totally freaked out super dramatic depressive stumbling blackness, the insane shrieked Ethel Merman like vocals, the bellowed deep crooning, the majestic mournful vocals, a sound so completely insane, but so totally amazing and irresistible. As pretty much all of their recordings have been totally unavailable for a while now, we've been unable to turn new folks on to these guys, which is a shame, since people in search of stuff both baffling and beautiful, heavy and confusing, mysterious and incredibly idiosyncratic, couldn't do much better than Urfaust. And those of us who had played their recordings to death, were in dire need of more more more!
So here we have it. More. Not much more, only three tracks, but they're long-ish, and more than enough to hold us over. And even at a mere 20 minutes in length, it's almost more than we could have ever hoped for. All of the elements we so loved about Urfaust are present and in full effect, but somehow the band have managed to make their sound even weirder, more fucked up, and somehow also more haunting and beautiful, without losing any of the total what the fuck factor. The opening track begins with some stripped down almost industrial rhythm, over whirring machine like sounds, before the main riff comes in, but instead of sounding like a guitar, it's almost like an organ, wheezing out a minor key melody, jarringly working it's way through each note, while over the top, the vocals are even more shrieky and haunting. The 'riffing' shifts to washed out warble, sounding almost like it was assembled from dusty old looped records. The drums are super distorted, and mechanical, and perfectly balance the washed out main melody and the reverb drenched shrieks, which are later joined by deep growly crooning. But the bridge to the song is so pretty, and so turntable-y sounding. It's a bit hard to explain, but it does sound like a Jeck, or Tim Hecker loop, worked into an almost-riff. Whatever it is and however they did it, it sounds amazing, creepy, mysterious, and so gloriously bizarre and beautiful.
The second track has the same sort �of wooden rhythm, but over it soars a strange machinelike high pitched buzz, a gnarled feedbacky guitar, that buzzes and warbles, the vocals a more punky yowl, buried way down in the mix. Super intense, and relentless, with that main buzz/squall running through the whole song, almost like a depressive black metal, noise rock mash up, but deftly twisted into Urfaust's strange stumbly sound. The close begins with blurred and indistinct voices, swirling in a stretch rife with reverb and delay and distortion, everything creepy and blurred, until the guitars come in, or at least they sound like guitars, sort of. Much like the first track, they sound almost like keyboards, or weird loops, assembled into strange depressive lurchings, The sound is murky and muddy, the drums buried, the vocals too, everything wreathed in some sort of effect, the main melody and riff swaying seasickly, swelling drunkenly, the vocals growing gradually in intensity, to a banshee like howl, a drunken sounding croon, before fading away again, leaving that main melody to buzz and throb, the vocals becoming a growling drone barely audible, the track woozily wavering and finally fading to black. So creepy and pretty, and unlike any Urfaust that came before, but somehow practically perfect. Another absolutely genius slab of bizarre blackness. But sadly, three songs is not nearly enough, as these are bound to get played to death, over and over and over as we wait for more�
One of our all time favorite fucked up black metal records EVER gets the super deluxe double lp vinyl reissue treatment. Super thick 180 gram vinyl, a completely gorgeous black on black, super heavy gatefold sleeve, all new artwork, limited to 500 copies, each lp hand numbered. This is so deluxe and so swank, it's almost like a whole new record. For those of you who somehow missed out on the bizarre brilliance that is Urfaust, or were just holding out in the hope, however farfetched, that someone would release some Urfaust on vinyl, well, here you go. Don't blow it! WE LOVE THIS BAND!!!
Here's what we had to say about the cd when we first got it in:
Some of you somehow missed out on the first Urfaust record we reviewed a while back. And how anyone missed it is a complete mystery, I mean, c'mon, how could you overlook a band described as an opera singer, wandering drunkenly down the street, who ducks into a live Karaoke bar, only to discover that the backup band is something like Burzum or Woodtemple, and thus proceeds to CROON maniacally atop their grim fuzzy midtempo buzzing backing, in an ultra dramatic warble that is equal parts Ethel Merman, Devil Doll's Mr. Doctor and Tom Jones?? Maybe you guys just needed a little reminder. Maybe you didn't read the part that said ETHEL MERMAN FRONTING FUCKING BURZUM!!! Holy crap! We wouldn't even have to hear it! Urfaust have to be the most damaged and demented and plain peculiar black metal band around. And it's not just the vocals (which we also now realize also remind us a bit of Morrissey), although they are one of the most amazing parts of the package. The band itself play their Burzum-y black metal to perfection, but they manage to take that black metal buzz and wrap it in layer after layer of affects and distortion, giving the whole thing a druggy, blissed out Spacemen 3 vibe. This is tripped out, drugged up, otherworldly, stumbling loping black metal perfection. The record opens up with a haunting 13 minute ambient soundscape of moaning cellos and creepy otherworldly strings before they all explode into a burst of martial brass and percussion. moments before a swarm of buzzing guitars attack, and the vocalist climbs atop them, like a wailing warrior riding a flying dragon. The songs on this record are much dronier and more hypnotic than the first record, riffs melt into one other, effects smear the whole thing into a slithering squirming mass of buzz and fuzz and moan. Halfway through the record, we get another 10+ minute breather, another gorgeously serene ambient drone, that drifts and shifts before agitated strings join in and the whole thing collapses back into a thick black metal lope. We didn't think it was possible for this record to be better than the first, and maybe it's not 'better', maybe it's just different, but WOW is this weird and baffling and totally brilliant stuff. Together, the two Urfaust records make quite possibly the ultimate outsider black metal document.
In our neverending quest to unearth the weirdest and wildest, most evil and grim, most damaged and baffling black metal there is, we not too long ago stumbled upon Urfaust. And we were immediately smitten, as were all of you judging from how difficult it was to keep those discs in stock. Well, all bow down and thank the dark lord, for now we have the latest offering from the strange hunting world of Urfaust! And if that wasn't enough, on this split they're teamed up with an outfit called Circle Of Ouroborous, who are even stranger than Urfaust, if that's even possible.
What is it about Urfaust that has us so in a tizzy. Well, imagine a loping buzzing midtempo black metal, raw, and thick and fuzzed out, but then add in a vocalist that croons and wails and sounds quite a bit like Ethel Merman, his vocals drenched in reverb, a huge thick cloud of croon, so weird but so goddamn amazing! These new tracks find Urfaust getting... you guessed it, even stranger. The first track is a whirl of huge blown out synths or guitars, big swells, distorted and warm and fuzzy, with a strange almost bouncy drum beat. By track two, the old Urfaust is back in effect, a huge wall of Burzumic guitar, a galloping midtempo drum beat, and those ridiculously remarkable vocals. We get so used to shrieking and howling vocals, that we were completely taken aback byt Urfaust's vocals, so much more emotional and passionate, strange indeed, but strange and mysterious and absolutely unlike anything you've heard in black metal. The third track is a creaking industrial soundscape, footsteps, breathing, clattering metal, atonal strings, very 20th century music concret. Really cool. The final ten minutes is a fuzzed out seasick waltz, huge guitars, super dramatic vocals, the guitars a thick whirring drone, the melody so melancholy and intense. Awesome. Definitely still one of our favorite metal bands for sure.
But wait. We've also got the mysterious Circle Of Ouroborus to contend with, and wooh boy, is this one cracked outfit. Half of CoO's six tracks are murky almost punky black metal blasts, super lo-fi, practice space production, the guitar a mumbly warble, the drums tinny and buried in the mix, and as you might expect for a band paired up with Urfaust, the vocalist is totally demented, a growling cracked croon, WAY up in the mix, shouting and howling, almost talking sometimes, making CoO sound a bit like a black metal Fall. The rest of the tracks are even more unlikely, all acoustic, with atonally strummed acoustic guitars and menacing sung / spoke vocals, even some harmonica! Some hellish campfire sing along, Bob Dylan channelled through some musical demon. It sounds a bit like a blackened Jandek, or the black metal folk of Dead Raven Choir, and actually quite a bit like AQ faves Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat (albeit much more low fidelity) or even a little like a more garage-y Current 93. But WOW! Not at all what we were expecting at all. This is something that could definitely pass for some freaky outsider folk record with passages of black buzz instead of the other way around. We never though any band could hold their own agains the mighty Urfaust, but Circle Of Ouroborus pull it off big time. Another damaged and demented black metal (sort of) band to keep an eye on for sure!
Don't even try pronouncing this band's name. Just sit back, relax and let the murky tones send you into a cosmic nightmare, where fried-out Afro-beats meet mind melting droney destruction. Sound too awesome to be true? We thought so too. Solo project of Matthew Rogers, member of the heavy hitting Wildildlife (and former aQ employee!!), Live In The Shit is the latest live recording from Upsputspud, and it's a warm engulfing wave of fucked up bliss. Side A begins with a slow building wall of harsh, New Agey drones, kinda reminding us of taking a Cocteau Twins intro and sending it through all kinds of analog fuzziness and delay. A subtle rhythm creeps up from from the hazy horizon, a hypnotic pulse turning and melting into pools of cosmic dust. Usputuspud emits a sound solely its own, lo-fi astral loops soaked in layers of dirt and fuzz, like a more damaged and lo-fi Zomes (if you can even imagine). Side B starts things running, layers of epic harmonica growing louder and louder until some low end crumble begins to eat away at the tape itself. Drugged out psychedelic filth, soaked in radiation and neon face paint, left out in the desert to dry. Imagine a more mysterious and epic sounding Monopoly Star Child Searchers, then thrown in a dash of rhythmic weirdness, and you have Live In The Shit. Limited to 80 tapes in a cryptic xeroxed insert, these will go fast, so don't be left in the dust on this one!
We reviewed the totally amazing metal-pop-punk of Fallout Boy last list and casually mentioned one of the bonus tracks, a super revved up metallic version of the Police's "Roxanne" not knowing that right around the corner was this compilation of even more Police covers by other of-the-moment emo / metallic pop punk / indie rock outifts. With compilations like this, there is so much potential for suck, but thankfully this here disc is about 90 percent cream. It helps that the Police were an amazing band, and wrote totally brilliant songs. So it's nice to hear different (some drastically) versions of some of those classics. Obviously Fallout Boy's "Roxanne" is a killer, souped up and WAY heavier, but there's also Limbeck's gorgeous and twangy countrified version of "So Lonely", a killer version of "Truth Hits Everybody" by Motion City Soundtrack, and probably the coolest weirdest track on here, Maxeen doing the classic Police b-side "Murder By Numbers", turning it into a creepy new wave epic, with fuzzy synths, high Shellac like guitar parts, and lots of weird dynamics. So good. The rest of the comp is rounded out by bands doing fairly faithful renditions (usually a bit heavier or faster) with only a few cringeworthy 'ballads' to speak of. Been listening to this non stop. As good as it is, it did have us pulling out our old Police records too!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Here's the weird Italian label Black Widow's massive double cd tribute to horror cinema (Italian and otherwise) featuring an international array of psych/prog acts: Ars Nova, Claudio Simonetti of Goblin, Humus, Northwinds, the Bevis Frond, Nekropolis, Morte Macabre, Tenebre, Malombra, Standarte, Sundial, and many many more. Some bands cover movie themes, others write songs *about* favorite films... An eerie and atmospheric homage to the likes of The Omen, Psychomania, Suspiria, The Devils, The Exorcist, etc. AND, to really make the mouth water, this comes with an really nice 80 page softcover book with essays about the horror movie genre (directors, films) and details on each band's contribution. It's an Italian import, and we don't have many...
The mighty Sublime Frequencies label keeps the impossibly cool comps coming, this their second collection of music from Algeria. The first focused on a very specific musical form from the region called Rai, whereas this new one is all about folk and pop music from the same era, and while on the surface it may seem more 'mainstream', it's still fantastically quirky, funky, groovy, and exotic, and all over the sonic map.
The seventies were a surprisingly good time for music in Algeria, 45's in particular, which was remarkable considering the socialist government at the time, and the legions of cops, and bureaucrats, and censors no doubt hell bent on suppressing any sort of social movement, and yet, music flourished, certainly a response to 'the man', who perhaps let these hippies have their music, assuming it might relieve some of the social tension of the time. Regardless, the 'hairies' embraced this sound, and were digging these very American influenced sounds, fuzzed out garage rock, groovy exotica, plenty of buzzing sitars, warbly organs, twangy surf guitar, wild percussion, male and female vox, some tracks sound literally straight out of the USA, others are fantastic hybrids of Western music and more traditional local sounds, but all the music included here is lively and powerful and personal and imbued with an energy that went well beyond just music and sound. And sure some of the jams are schmaltzy, almost easy listening, but even then, listening to those tracks, dressing wild and growing your hair our, was still extremely subversive and a serious rebellion, especially considering most of this music was officially suppressed. Like all Sublime Frequencies comps, so fantastic, and leaves us hankering for more more more!
And packaged as always, sublimely (ahem), in a heavy full color gatefold sleeve, with a super striking black and white portrait of an Algerian couple in their best rock and roll finery on the front, and inside, plenty of rare photos, liner notes and notes on each song and performer.
Another winner from Sublime Frequencies. And while we made sure to stress that past "vinyl-only" were indeed vinyl only, lately, those vinyl releases have been slowly making it to cd. BUT, for the vinyl folks out there, these do disappear fast, and fetch big bucks on eBay once they're gone, so you're not gonna want to snooze on this one. Listening to this again, now, for maybe the 20th time in 2 days, it's becoming clear we'll probably have to make this a Record Of The Week as soon as it comes out on cd, but for now, even though it's only a highlight, it really couldn't be more of a MUST OWN.
And like many of the Sublime Frequencies before it, we find it hard to not think that maybe folks don't need to be making so much music, releasing so many records, when so much amazing outrageously creative music is already being and has been made all over the world, for so long, much of it never heard outside of a very few people. Maybe we should have some sort of national policy, where bands can turn in their instruments, and in exchange get a recorder, a plane ticket, and an expense account, with which they can roam the world bringing back some of that unheard and lost music. Heck, sign us up right now!
Anyway, this new release is a collection of Rai music from the early seventies, from Algeria, and these particular cuts are samples of some of the sort of "outlaw" Rai performers, a modern strain that has been neglected and ignored, and takes this classic Algerian music form, and adds electric guitar, trumpets, wah wah pedal, and whips it all up into an infectious brew equal parts Ethiopiques, Bollywood and garage rock. Or something close to that. This stuff is truly hard to describe, and the liner notes, while informative, are printed on an eye popping blue on red old school 3-D colored background which makes the text swim and sway before your eyes. And offer more on the history and the players than what Rai music actually is (there's a good description on Wikipedia). But for the purpose of this review, as it should be, we'll just focus on the sound. And what a sound!
Warm whirring organ drones, trumpets EVERYWHERE, really the defining sound, wild chaotic tribal drumming, crooned dramatic vocals, groovy, soulful, funky, raw and lo-fi, like a garage rock Ethiopiques, but with a strangely raw Bollywood vibe, the trumpets peppering the murky grooves with strange fanfares and jazzy melodies, here and there distorted guitars surface, wrapped in wah wah, reverb and echo all over the place, some songs super frenzied, others laid back and dreamy, Indian melodies draped over almost surfy grooves, really pretty fantastic. Hard to imagine that folks who have been digging all the Sublime Frequencies releases, or the Yaala Yaala reissues won't go crazy for this stuff.
Group Doueh, Group Inerane, and now this, a pretty mind blowing, near perfect, far out world music three-fer, and that's not even counting the 30+ release that came before. ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED.
LIMITED TO 1500 COPIES, 180 gram vinyl, super thick gatefold sleeve, full color, with tons of photos and liner notes inside.
"400% Dynamite" is the fourth and undeniably the best in the series of Jamaican grooves as compiled by Soul Jazz Records. There's the dubbed out dancehall raggamuffin chants from Barrington Levy and Tenor Saw & Buju Bantu (whose cut "Ring The Alarm Quick" may inspire us to venture further into dancehall); the soulful rocksteady of Prince Buster and Toots & The Maytals; the classic early ska sounds of The Cimerons. Come to think of it, there's not a single track here which isn't fantastic. I don't even think we can say that about those universally loved Trojan compilations!
For those of you not familiar with Monster Island, it's an imaginary land, created by artist Pete Fowler, filled with Technicolor cartoon monsters, bats, Yeti's, sea serpents, as well as a strange group of long haired residents, from grungy space rock musicians, to antlered rednecks, Fowler's art so dreamy and trippy and far out (and even sports some Fowler tattoos!!). A few years ago, there was another Monster Island compilation, that one was more focused on free folk and acid psych, perfectly complimenting Fowlers druggy land of wonder. Somehow, this second comp, is equally apt, exploring a whole different sound, and we can only assume, a whole different side of the island, and thus of course a bunch of new and fascinating beasts and mysterious folks...
Monsterism Island, at least sonically, is some imaginary haven of carefree, melty bliss and this is the freaky soundtrack to that wonderful world. The vibe this time around is some sort of really cool late '80s/early '90s video game soundtrack, lots of bloops and bleeps and skittery beats, imagine maybe a more tripped out, woozy and breezy soundtrack to Sonic The Hedgehog. The sound is all over the map, from colorful dreamy electronica, to groove heavy jazz to soft-psychedelic shimmer. Occasionally we're also reminded of Boards Of Canada as well as some obscure library music (makes sense that Johnny Trunk has a track on here!). We could have done without some of the 'goofy' spoken interludes and it does get a bit smooth sailin' in a party love boat kind of way, but still a nice fun ride for sure, then again, what would you expect a world of kaleidoscopic weirdness and wildly prismatic landscapes, groovy mystery bands and a wild array of wee beasties to sound like anyway?! Cool packaging too, featuring some of Fowlers gorgeous artwork.
So strap on the headphones, throw this in the stereo and head here:
http://www.monsterism.net/
And let yourself get WAY lost...
Everyone has a specific music they're especially fond of. And sure we're all pretty omnivorous when it comes to the music we love, but there's always that one sound or style you find yourself returning to again and again, that one thing on your iPod that gets played over and over like crazy, around here, folks tend to be partial to jangly pop, blackened metal, abstract noise, seventies proto metal, field recordings, sixties psych, Warped Tour emo metal, techno, or dubstep, among other things. But one thing everything here can agree on, is the importance of 'sleeping' music. Those blissed out sounds that are perfect for late nights, for that moment when your consciousness begins to drift, where for a moment, you get just a glimpse of the other side, before the curtain parts and your incorporeal self slips past, and doesn't return until the next morning. The soundtrack for that crossover is also very personal, some folks listen to buzzing black metal to drift off, others the mesmerizing thump of minimal techno, but there is a certain strain of ambient music that everyone here is equally enamored of. Minimal techno label Kompakt has coined the phrase Pop Ambient for this strain of electronic music, one that is not so much standard ambient music, or even new age, but more an electronica/techno with the beats removed, leaving just the ethereal ephemera, that at one time was a backdrop for the beats, but sans rhythms, those sounds become the focus, and are loosed from any sort of proper structure, allowed to flow and drift, to swirl and shimmer, this new music that is indeed ambient, and perhaps even a little new agey, but is ultimately something much more evocative and experimental, songs and sounds that acts as mysterious soundtracks for sleep, music that simultaneously serves as background ambience, but can also invoke active listening, allowing the listener to immerse themselves in the sound, to travel sonically to these otherworlds, to explore, and to get gloriously lost.
This double disc collects some of the current crop of ambient alchemists, a handful who are already aQ faves including Leyland Kirby, Klimek, Biosphere, Oneohtrix Point Never, Atlas Sound, Wolfgang Voigt, Markus Guentner, and Maps And Diagrams (whose cd on Time Released sound we reviewed recently), but even more that are brand new discoveries, all of whom are poised to become new favorites for sure, and pretty much instantly, this comp became out go-to late night listening collection.
The first disc is heavier on the new discoveries, opening up with a track by Orla Wren, who weaves a glitchy stretch of crystalline skitter, that reminds us a bit of Oval, all warm and liquid, hushed and delicate, but which soon blossoms into a lush thick swirl of layered buzz and softly swirling shimmer, laced with chiming melodies, and hazy bell like tones, one track in, and we already find ourselves wanting to hear more, which happens again minutes later when Rafael Anton Irisarri's track begins, a warm, swirling cinematic thrum, a very Caretaker-sounding sprawl of murky muddy strings, of looped string section shimmer, all blurred into something hazy and drifty, wreathed in soft hiss and warm record crackle, looped and lovely and hauntingly mesmerizing. The oddly named Let's Go Outside continue with their own brand of dreamy drift, a blissed out dreamdrone raga of metallic buzz and lush layered loveliness. Bvdub (aka Brock Van Wey, one of the curators of this collection) offers his own bit of looped and layered swirl, all effected steel strings, a sort of folky flutter smeared into lush string like swells, the lengthy track peppered with epic majestic bursts of heaving high end buzz, again all blurred into something more more ethereal, and so it goes, this is one of those rare comps, that not only plays like a proper album, but that doesn't slip up once, every single track here is gorgeous, and is woven deftly into the sonic fabric of the whole.
The second disc is where most of the more familiar names can be found, many of those Pop Ambient veterans, Klimek (who even released a record called Music To Fall Asleep), starts things off with a field recording flecked slow burn drone, very darkly dramatic and ethereal, which leads directly into a track by Andrew Thomas (the other curator of this collection), his number a moody chunk of shimmery slowcore, all twangy Earth-like guitars over a hushed hazy backdrop of warm strings and glistening analog crackle, sounding almost like a Pop Ambient Barn Owl. Oneohtrix delivers some very minimal and dreamy celestial kosmische, while Biosphere weaves a gorgeous bit of orchestral thrum, all deep swirling strings, pizzicato melodies and mysterious percussion, while Markus Guenter finally introduces a beat, a murky minimal pulse, beneath another gorgeous sprawl of glistening droned out shimmer, and again, so it goes for the rest of the second disc as well.
ANYone who loves the Pop Ambient series will flip for this, as will fans of all things darkly dreamy, be it minimal electronica, abstract krautdrone, cinematic ambience or anywhere in between.
We're always wary of electronic compilations, for some reason, not sure if it's just an oversight or if they are meant to be super academic, but there seems to be no attention to flow. No consideration of what it might be like as a listening experience. You'll have 3 or 4 super quiet drone tracks, then a screaming grinding wall of noise, then a whispery hushed drift. In some ways it makes it practically unlistenable. Not that those records aren't worth owning, but they require special listening, a track at a time, thus, the listener is not lulled into a droney hypnotic state before being blasted out of his or her headphones.
So we were even more wary of this massive FOUR disc collection of experimental music from China (as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia), we knew it would be amazing, and most definitely an incredible sampling of sounds, but the difference between that, and a well sequenced collection of songs is the difference between pulling a record out every once in a while, and listening to hours and hours of sounds and getting immersed and lost in the sounds. We're happy to report, that this collection, surprisingly, falls into the later category. The first disc alone is nearly perfect, an incredible collection of deep dronemusic, thick and textured and varied and mysterious, rich and layered and lush, dark and haunting, from thick rumbling buzz, to barely audible sine waves, muted thumps and abstract rhythms, post industrial soundscapes of tangled tones and warm washed out whirs, to glitchy skittery Raster-Noton style minimalism, to warm blissed out almost new age-y drift, to squiggly seas of shimmery tones and buried glitches, to super abstract, ultra spare electronic hum, to clouds of insectoid like buzz, to warm wall of sound thrum, there are moments where the sounds grow jagged and sharp, caustic and corrosive, but the whole disc flows like a composed, tripped out minimal glitch space drone record, and there are three more discs!
The other discs are similarly grouped so that the flow is as much a part of the sound as the individual songs, although the focus shifts, where the first disc was more droney, the second disc seems to be more songy. There's still plenty of glitch and hum, but there's lots of real instruments, some proper bands, lots of electronic skitter, some serious noise, and lost of sonic weirdness. And so it goes.
There's LOTS to get into here. We've listened to the first disc a whole bunch of times, the second one a handful, the 3rd and 4th once or twice, and we're still discovering and exploring, but we do find ourselves not just skipping song to song, but throwing this on, laying back, and listening to whole discs, which again is so rare for this sort of compilation. Really amazing stuff. Really recommended.
Packaged in a fancy full color fold out digipak, with a booklet and minimal liner notes.
Even if we hadn't already been familiar with the first volume in the Angola Soundtrack series, we would have been pretty curious about this new one. The cover art, to start with: a super psychedelic, color tinted image of four women with spiked out antenna-like hair, and in the foreground, a hulking figure, head shaved and shirtless, wreathed in shadow and smoking a cigar, his belly hanging over his belt, it almost looks like a still from some crazy psychedelic arthouse film, and then there's the compilation's subtitle: Hypnosis, Distortion & Other Sonic Innovations - all right! And while it's maybe not as freaky and far out as all that might lead one to believe, it's still pretty fantastic, and the perfect follow up to the first volume for sure.
The first track should have most folks totally smitten, an instrumental psychedelic groove, all spidery guitar melodies, some wah wah here and there, and a seriously Latin sounding rhythm, which is not all that surprising, considering that we discovered with the first volume, that Latin music was a huge influence on the Angola sound, and that's super obvious throughout volume two as well. As we mentioned in that original review, having no context, we really might have assumed that this music was in fact from Central or South America, but it's that fusion of Latin and African that makes the sound so unique, so vibrant, joyous and alive. A lot of the tracks have a big band Afro-Jazz vibe, but some sound like fuzzed out Afro-Latin garage rock, others more balladic and croony, and still others almost like they could be music from Italian Westerns, but all the tracks here are incredible, from energetic and joyously raucous to moody and melancholic, such fantastic stuff, and like the first volume, on heavy heavy rotation, which as always, is the best recommendation of all...
Like all Analog Africa releases, the packaging is fantastic, the aforementioned cover art, a heavy slipcover. Inside, the disc in a full color digipak, the accompanying book, massive, overflowing with extensive liner notes on the artists, the songs, the region, as well as the music and culture of the time, tons of rare photos too.
