This 1978 minimalist masterpiece by Italian composer Lino Capra Vaccina got reissued last year on the Die Schachtel label but quickly went out of print. Now the cd (which includes 4 bonus tracks) has been repressed, we can finally list it, as it's a wondrous masterpiece of minimal majesty that sits somewhere loosely between new age and world music sensibilities as well as electronic and avant-garde. Vaccina is a percussionist and composer and inspired by Steve Reich's Drumming album, created this work which is grounded in percussion but at the same time atypical of what a percussion focused piece would be expected to sound like. Using vibraphones, gongs, and marimbas, Vaccina employs a long-form sonorous foundation built on timbres and resonances that build abstractly into sublime dreamy clusters. Filtered voices and electronic enhancements give flowering shape to the scrapes and bells, evolving into meditative ruminations and curious otherworldly sounds. Magnificent in scope, there is a connecting thread to like-minded composers such as Roberto Cacciapaglia, David Behrman, Nuno Canavarro and early Anton Batagov. Even Kieran Hebden of Four Tet is a major fan (he provides the liner notes here). Incredibly moving and highly recommended!
Note: Vaccina vinyl has been released (and repressed) as well, but the tracks from this disc are spread across two separate lps, each of which cost more than this single cd - the original six-track album Antico Adagio and another called Frammenti Da Antico Adagio containing the four bonus tracks included on this cd. We'll stock 'em soon, though, so let us know if you're interested.
Stoners and loners Weed are back with another full-length of dopey noise-pop sad jams, and once again, we're fully on board. You remember that episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer goes to Lollapalooza in an effort to be cool, and is met with a crowd of swaying Gen-X'ers mumbling to Sonic Youth? Yeah, this record kinda sounds like that, in the best way possible. Right off the bat, we get a quick modulating buzz before it kicks right in, and wouldn't you know it? The first line is a monotone "I don't wanna feel like this anymore". Running Back is that perfect nineties blend of mopey, noisey nihilism and sugary, perfect pop. "Thousand Pounds," for example, captures this blend perfectly; pounding rhythm, almost shoegaze-esque fuzzed-out guitars, and buried but melodic-as-hell vocals that brings to mind the last Nothing record, super bombastic and poppy, but also melancholic and despondent. "Meet Me With Ease" is the other side of the Weed coin, the faster, more punked up, more "rock" jam that will have every stoned twenty-something swaying with it.
There's a kind of no-nonsense, punkish approach on Running Back that distinguishes it from the wave of new shoegaze (is that called Nu-Gaze?) bands - everything's a little faster, a little more to-the-point, and it works so well on this record. If you still have a soft spot in your heart for the grungy, noisey, poppy sound of bands like Dinosaur Jr and Sebadoh (and why wouldn't you?), you'll be pumped on this record.
Wolf Eyes really tend to divide folks right down the middle. Love 'em or can't stand 'em. And in typical Wolf Eyes fashion, they're going to do their very best to annoy the fuck out of everybody with their 'big break' Sub Pop debut. Quite possibly the harshest Wolf Eyes record, which is saying a lot, Burned Mind is a caustic mouthful of acid, spit right in your eyes (ears?). A head melting electronic throb, equal parts damaged malfunctioning synths, squealing feedback, ultra distorted howls, skittering skipping sort-of-rhythms. Wolf Eyes, more than almost any other band, definitely sound damaged and fucked and seriously messed up. But what keeps Burned Mind from being a boring old straight up noise record? Hard to say. But something definitely does. Some mysterious intangible something. Burned Mind is definitely harsh, bit in no way unlistenable. In fact it's strangely beautiful and subtly (VERY subtly) melodic. Equal parts Factrix, Merzbow, Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse but all warped and twisted into the uniquely fucked sonic world of Wolf Eyes.
Interplanetary cosmic space-slamz? Hyperwarp tech-death cyborgization? Computronic brutality from the event horizon? Surely aQuarius of all places would champion these genres, if they were real. Luckily, Spain's Wormed invented all of them! Their third album, and somehow the first we've reviewed, Krighsu, explores a distant future where the last human lineage seeks to save the universe from destructive nanomachines. The music to accompany the story is easily the most over-the-top, hyperspeed, mind-meltingly technical brutal death slamz you will hear between now and the distant cyberfuture. Somehow, Wormed are indeed humans, and how humans created these sounds is beyond us. So deep into the abysss of mechanized brutal death metal that it will surely appeal to people who don't normally dabble with the gore-obssessed simpletons that they would otherwise avoid. Top notch stuff!
