Sounds on the turntable this missive….
Henry blacker, the electric mainline, bog, kramies, perth, endra bergon, mnomized, wind hand, Jonathon carom, islet, alex monk, preterite, cloudland canyon, disappears, dearly beloved, sheen, toy, elephant, baby woodrose, menace beaches, making marks, yellow6, Pollyanna band, agoraphobic nosebleed, genesis breyer p orridge, broken circle breakdown band, john 3:16, crisis arm, dogs, telepath, blow mind, jumpel, pas musique, linda perhaps, nugent and belle, harlequin dynamite marching band, rebel set, gorgeous george, gloom balloon, tesla, von tesla, lorelle meets the obsolete, schizo fun addict, zzips, Japanese gum, casimer and casimir, xiu xiu, dott, dosh, stargazer lillies, tracy shedd and AM
Featuring two members from Hey Colossus and a brother on drums – whose brother were not quite sure – could be your brother if he has a penchant for tub thumping – which we admit sounds in print when reading back like some private aside that old wife’s tales would have you believing procured blindness in men folk. Comedic turns aside – this lot make up Henry Blacker who as it happens are shortly to have their debuting long playing ‘hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings‘ platter debuting on riot season. From that set we’ve this gnarled little blighter ’pullin like a dray’ to drop kick into your comfortable listening space. Typically damaged and deranged not to say a tad demented, this beatnik bastard rumbles ominously, rising from a primordial ooze it flexes its scowling disquiet to a progressive mathian art gouged grooving that’s heavy on the brooding agit core scale whilst surprisingly leaning towards the flame hot psychosis of a youthful Birthday Party, very bad to the bone boogie making that forthcoming album something of a must hear treat. www.soundcloud.com/riotseason/henry-blacker-pullin-like-a
Up for a spot of sitar drenched psych dream pop, this came highly recommended by Brian Bordello, from the electric mainline – long time no see or hear for that matter in these pages, the band featuring the dude who runs psych out imprint northern star. Anyhow this un is a remix of ’let me drift away’ all woozy mind wiring motifs to have us all a ga-ga. Transcendental trippiness a go, all Eastern vibes and looped grooving drone recitals, a sleepy third eye snake charmer that in truth nods as were to some mystic mountain summit headed up by Sonic Boom, Fuxa and Sunray, alternatively mind you heard through my magic ear repeat listens reveal something sounding not unlike a paris angels re-twiddling of my jealous god rolled gold.
www.soundcloud.com/theelectricmainline/let-me-drift-away-remix
I’m suspecting your missing your usual all hell erupting aural dietary needs so we scoured around band camp world and hooked upon this. Death grind core from Russia. Now I’ll be totally frank with you about the reasons as to why this appealed to our impish nature. Okay first the sleeve, very grim and in a certain light quite worrying. Secondly the fact that most of the tracks enter stage left, do their considerable damage and then depart at around 90 seconds. Lastly – be honest how can you resist a band who cite their roles in this grim ordeal not as guitarist, bassist etc…..but ’pain and despair’, ’wounds and traumas’ and ’mourning and consolation’. BOG for that be their name hail from Russia and under their collective arm have been parading the ominously titled ’voluntary burial alive’. agreed not your seasonal happy go lucky listening ware rather more brutal in your face sonic torture fair granted not as sadistic, vicious or without hope as Nails but still prime packed with enough hell howled artillery to have you cowering behind the nearest sofa. That said its not quite all out assault for BOG tweak the blood letting fury with moments of ad hoc serenity clipped wit electro 8bit squiggles and as opening ambit ‘gospel the frightening and encouraging’ reveals elements of math gouged jazz funk kookiness before erupting without warning into chaos and what sounds like pig snorts and the most demonic vocal you’ll ever hear. If you’re looking for something truly tyrannical ’the walls of our bodies’ is so ferocious it literally rips away the top three layers of skin through its abrasiveness . ‘when I see shit I become sentimental’ affirms their doom dread credentials amid a warring sea surge of scowling paranoia while the parting ‘children of third world’ leaves you feeling decidedly ill with a sickly aftertaste/ www.abstrctgrndbog.bandcamp.com/album/voluntary-burial-alive
If we were to draw up a list of favourite labels this year Australia’s Hidden Shoal would figure high in our affection, time after time they have maintained an impeccable release rate giving much need exposure to some of that country’s finest exponents of dream / shoe gaze / ambient pop. As the year rounds off a chance to celebrate two recent releases from this adorable imprint. First up the Kramies – featured here a few missives back, ’sea otter cottage’ is another track culled from their ’the wooden heart’ EP and features a guest appearance by Grandaddy man Jason Lytle, in short if this doesn’t get you reaching for something to dab away the trickling tears then frankly your steeled in remote emotionless stuff. A towering bitter sweet symphony moored in heartbreak, fear and resignation, all at once tugging upon the heart strings and steeped in a desperately fading grandeur whose hope withers with forlorn regret, the delivery as touching as it is transfixing is poised and majestic touching base in terms of sentiment with Julian Lennon‘s ‘saltwater‘, simply perfect.
Pulled from their recent ‘what’s your utopia’ full length comes ‘quantum chronological’ from perth. Again mentioned in passing dispatches when we viewed fondly their ‘greasy moon’ single, on this occasion this little murmuring honey coos albeit as though adrift aboard a flotilla at voyage upon the vast lonesome celestial seas, a kind of lunar ‘sailing by’ as though re-hatched by a meeting of ISAN, Discordia, to shack highway and landshipping minds all purred to the sound orbital carnivals and frosty trip hop bats, utterly divine…..the video incidentally was crafted by MS Paint artist and animator James Spinks…
Picked this up on a face book posting would you believe, released courtesy of Norwegian based tape imprint norweirdian and no doubt ridiculously limited in nature its by Endra Bergon from the ‘endra bergon Vol 1’ set and it goes by the name ‘dreamt that I spoke’. described as leftfield techno from Norway per the descriptive tags this snow fallen nocturnal lullaby amid its sleepy headed clock working sepia framing defrosts resplendently into little miniature pockets of jubilant euphoria to sounds like a super chilled orbital ISAN shimmying up to some minimalist murmured dream collage with the sea and cake associations. www.norweirdian.bandcamp.com/track/dreamt-that-i-spoke-feat-andre-bergon
Think I’m right in saying this appears on the German imprint Silent Port, alas not sure exactly what format it comes in but its from Mnomized who it seems do a rather nifty turn in minimalist electro techno with this particular cut ‘eclipse’ sounded not unlike a rebooted Kraftwerk engaged and adrift in sparsely woven cosmic wave, this lunar love note finds itself located somewhere between the frail and fragile murmurs of a youthful Minotaur Shock and the pulsar technoid nocturnal sound worlds of Cluster albeit dinked in the kind of retoism much adored and found on the weird imprint. www.soundcloud.com/silentport-silentport/mnomized-silentport-eclipse?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_sourcecampaign=share&utm_medium=facebook
Now this has been buzzing about our ear space for pretty much most of the week, I’m not even going to venture or guess as to what’s in their medicine bag but one things for certain they certainly know their way around the concocting of wildly freakish specimens of the psychedelic tropicalia species. ‘released by the movement’ is the second full length from Cardiff’s most impish souls Islet. They delight in the strange, the alluring, the fractured and the fried, across the eleven tracks captured here they apply a melodic maximus whose reference radar is as wide and varied as the cross weaving generic warping they apply to their sounds. Here you’ll be greeted to the crooked calypso carnival that is the wildly skittish ‘triangulation station’ wrapped in falsettos and a zig zagging beat gouged art pop persona wherein its curiously ad hoc dislocated funk freaked nature coos one suspects to a
listening love mainly comprised of the early back catalogue of the Sparks. ‘tripping through the blue room’ here split into two parts acts as the albums centre piece, ‘part 1’ very much voyaging towards Panda Bear environs while ‘part 2’ is momentarily dinked in the kind of serene cosmicalia that’s suggests a chilled celestial afterburn of an idyllic hideaway lazing sultrily bathed beneath the glow of an alien twin sunset. Elsewhere there’s the lo-fi lunar pop fuzziness of the outer worldly and goofy ‘citrus peel’ as it grinds and whirrs within a slightly dislocated bubble groove mantra as though a Hot Chipped Go Team. Like some b-movie styled slab of sonic genetic engineering ‘Carlos’ is awash in dissolving dream raptures courted by tripping twang motifs harnessed upon strut gouged frenetic angular white funk forays all of which had us recalling at various points Dawn of the Replicants. For us the sets best moment comes with the arrival of the deliciously skewiff ‘mirror me’ a wiring stew of krautian mantras twisted and frazzled by the subtle steel of math grooves which when combined give it an air of something found simmering on a late 70’s back burner, very strange and very irregular. Out via shape incidentally.
Something else we eyed on band camp is a forthcoming release by no wave cinema who we suspect is in reality new york resident Jonathan Carom. Not due until February wherein it’ll arrive on a limited edition cassette upon whose tape spools will feature an array of woozy spectral celestial pop by the name ‘sunsets by midnight’. so far there’s just two preview tracks oozing dreamily on band camp both we here are suspecting taking their cue from Cheval Sombre not least the title track which aglow in a tenderly traced hymnal aspect sweetly glides almost airless upon a demurring Spacemen 3 meets Galaxie 500 styled frailty all the time pierced by the heavenly haloing of dream drifted waveforms. More animated in texture is the crystalline fragile dream pop of ‘when she sleeps’ – a gorgeously frozen in the moment ice sculptured love note which to these ears sounds not unlike a thoughtful Durutti Column – need I say more, exquisite stuff. www.nowavecinema.bandcamp.com/album/sunsets-by-midnight-lp
Out a few weeks ago via Relapse, the debut long playing platter from Windhand entitled ‘soma’ promised doom, death and decay in certain quarters of the press and while that might generally be the case on the slavering stoned groove behemoth from this Richmond based quintet we did manage to prize a moment of blissfulness courtesy of ‘evergreen’. there are moments on this wherein it strays ever so closely into the aural orbit of Mountains ‘Nantucket sleigh ride’ – no bad thing there albeit here as though rephrased in the psych folk splendour of a demurring Damon and Naomi with Ghost found shimmying up to Preterite. www.windhandva.bandcamp.com/album/soma
Last featured in related despatches via his debuting ‘exchanging chairs’ set from a few years back, has it really been that long surely not. Latest opus from experimental ambient psychedelicist Alex Monk is the uber limited ‘indiscreet mirror’ set just out and available as a download or by all account on a nifty looking white vinyl variant housed in a screen printed sleeving. Now while we try and make the necessary overtures for hard copies we’ll just direct your listening interests to the sets opening salvo ‘the trickster’ which features a guest appearance by Sand Snowman Gavan Kearney (are the Sand Snowman still around we did wonder). A wonderfully bewitched slice of acid psych folk snaked upon a timeless rustic tapestry forged in lost old English folk madrigals, both haunting and enchanting this lysergic love note comes pressed upon an earthing that reveals an aural affinity shared with that of Sproatly Smith, Men An Tol and other similarly minded pastoral playsmiths, add to the palette the ghostly spectre of Paul Roland and the hazy whittling of Summerisle motifs and you have yourself something of a time tunnelled view of a forgotten village green age shrouded in mystery, macabre and mayday merriment. www.alexmonk.bandcamp.com
Seemingly as old as the winds that carry it aloft and spoken in a timeless long dead musical tongue, ‘from the wells’ haunts and aches with equal candour as it traverses its lonesome and neglected path, a path littered with ghostly visions of empires before the fall and civilisations steeped in history and ruined by greed and war. Oblique, desolate and beautifully bruised, the sound of Preterite is haunting and harrowing, its not the first time we’ve encountered duo Genevieve and James for their debuting ’pillar of winds’ set from 2011 was as stunning as anything we heard that year, new album ’from the wells’ just out via union finale is released as a specially packaged CD limited to just 250 copies and promises the same. For now this the lead track ought to serve as a timely reminder as to the duo bewitching craft steeled as it is in the mercurial glow of a classic era Dead Can Dance. www.preterite.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-wells
How cool is this. Get yourself a limited single, press up say, 300 copies. Have them stamped up on yellow wax. On 7 inches of vinyl of course because as everyone knows that the cutest format. House them in a yellow die cut sleeve. Offer a natty little pin badge for subscribers purchasing direct from you. Before all that of course call up two of your favourite bands from across the pond – lets say disappears and cloudland canyon. Invite them to put their spin on a brace of kraftwerk nuggets from yesteryear. Sit back and hey presto, wait for the spondoolies avalanche to happen. Disappears get to ruffle the acutely symmetrical side parting of ’Trans Europe Express’ and equip the blueprint with a curiously dark wave psychotropic fuelled dub-tronic arabesque groove, the massive and cinematic almost sucks you into its ever expansive void, bleak and sinister its bedded upon the kind of fractured psyche one might imagine seeping through the sonic surface skin had Add N to X ever deemed to shimmy up to Clock DVA. Cloudland canyon need no introductions here for in recent times they’ve graced the esteemed Trensmat imprint with their finest moment to date, here they rewire the consoles of ’radioactivity’ or as they’ve elected to call it ’radioaktivitat’ and pressed upon it a gorgeously mesmerising slice of mind bending cosmicalia that whirrs woozily amid the jubilant crush of motorik grooved radiant sunspot sirens. Out via sonic cathedral – you know it makes sense. www.soniccathedral.co.uk
www.soundcloud.com/sonic-cathedral/disappears-trans-europa
www.soundcloud.com/sonic-cathedral/cloudland-canyon-radioaktivita
If I was a betting man I’d have laid down all my worldly possessions in contesting that we’d already mentioned this in passing and to wit with a mighty fanfare. However had that been the case we’d be right now snuggled up in a borrowed cardboard box busking for our lives trying to gather the readies for a pissing pot we could call our own for a quick rummage around our notes confirms that we were a little misguided and somewhat ahead of ourselves in our eagerness. Prized from their just released ‘hawk vs.. pigeon’ set comes ‘living proof’ from the dearly beloved. Now I’ll still maintain that we’ve had this rattling around our headspace far longer than we care to mention but I’ll be buggered if I can recall exactly from where. Anyhow this shock treated slab of spluttering grunge gouged rumbling effervescence should by rights be setting the hairs a jangling on the back of necks of you young indie pop sorts. among the assembled crew guest appearing on the album are members of m83, mars volta, broken social scene and the excellently named eagles of death metal – all of whom at one time or another have strayed under the watchful eye of these musings. As to the track, an abrupt adrenalin jab in the arm of frenetic cold wave clattering, this babe is over you like a rash, a kind of volcanic controller.controller replete with panic attacking sonic armoury and soaring dream popping stratospherics all locked, loaded and primed for maximum stereophonic white out bliss. Need I say more. Video thing goes like this……
I’m going to be totally honest with you and admit I’ve absolutely no idea who sent this along. I’m fairly certain it wasn’t acquired on a frequent foray into cyberspace via band camp etc….all said there’s no denying that this is simply gorgeous. Titled ‘hey’ its by Sheen who alas until I find the relevant listing is as about information as your going to get at the moment, five and a half minutes of absolute bliss is what’s on offer, a kind of Sundays meets Frente ethereal dreaminess all ice frosted in a moment, the cooing faraway vocals sweetly melting like some forlorn cosmic siren atop the spidery opine of a woozy oceanic post rockist murmur which coalescing together give it an alluringly sumptuous sepia framed torch like quality which at the 3.50 mark fizzes and catches alight in a glorious sun burst of bliss kissed feedback. www.soundcloud.com/sheenmusic/sheen-hey
Christmas comes early to Spitalfields Market which all being if this gets posted in time is this weekend or last weekend should it be the case that its uploaded later or worse still last month if the recent despatches of missives are scandalously held up on the God is in the TV conveyor which in both cases means you‘ve missed it and now have to patiently wait until next year – which on a happy note gives you fair chance to save your readiness for goodies that might or might not lay in store. Okay we appear to have run ourselves into a wordy cul de sac, so let‘s back track. This Saturday that‘ll be Saturday 30th November, Spitalfields market the old one that is, top flight indie pop label Memphis Industries will be airing their wares at the annual festive independent label market wherein they’ll be joined by elephant and Barbarossa types who’ll be on hand to sign, chat and sell various goodies among the lots signed grooves from the field music, polica and dutch uncles, a special gold ticket raffle with chances to win an entire years worth of album from Memphis industries on a format of your choice, as well as vinyl lucky dip parcels and free stuff among which will be an array of badges, tote bags and while stocks flow the occasional draft of Christmas booze.
White vinyl, limited, on wax – what more do you want, oh yea dandy tune to go with it. Let me introduce to Elephant who happily serve up the goodies courtesy o the quite perfect ‘shape shifter’. we here are I must confess a tad bit overcome with this, it beautified crystal tipped ethereal arrangements seeped in a sepia framing all demurred with the nocturnal tip toeing of down tempo sophistication had us much in mind of a lovelorn and bliss chilled St Etienne in a longing embrace with Shortwave Set with no ceremony jealously looking on from the shadows. Utterly enchanting. Debut album looms on the horizon expected early 2014
Video goes like this…..
Next up from Denmark’s finest sound house Bad Afro, that is after the imminent debut from the Dandelion, will be an incoming compilation from Baby Woodrose. The set due next March gathers together a whole host of rare b-sides and lost tracks from limited 7 inch pressings released across the globe along with the addition of a Raveonettes cover in the shape of ‘beat city’ – all now deleted and often highly sought after amid a fist fighting frenzy on clued in online auction sites. By way of a taster two sample cuts have been leaked to whet appetites ‘bubblegum’ and ‘coming around again’ – the former a blistering slab of Seeds in a face off with the Standells gnarled garage gouged psychedelicised groove with the latter a sumptuously shimmering kaleidoscopic pop-a-delic delight fitted out in lysergic lilts and spiked with a sassy 60’s strut. Class in short.
www.soundcloud.com/badafrorecords/baby-woodrose-bubblegum
www.soundcloud.com/badafrorecords/baby-woodrose-coming-around
Their debut long playing platter was our favourite moment of last year. Their follow up ’join the dots’ out next week via heavenly looks like sneaking its way at a final gasp onto our prized listening experiences of this year. Expect praise lavished in heaps in a forthcoming missive. For now though the small question of the title track – which too much incessant grumbling appeared in limited 7 inch just last month – I bet the blighters have all been snapped up now given there where just 300 of them. Anyhow a dandy little bugger – a sub four minute rush to the head of kraut gouged kaleidoscopic boogie I’ll have you know, admittedly it lifts a little from the Beatles ’within you without you’ though submerges it a motorik maelstrom that veers between pulsing purrs that canter dreamily around hypnotic circular motions and all out skull caning senses blurring squalling white out, kinda cute if you ask me and frankly the dogs danders.
Video type presentation goes a lot like this……
More top notch Memphis industries musicalia this time courtesy of a sneak peak at a forthcoming label debuting platter from the menace beaches who among their ranks have a revolving cast of talent that features members of the hookworms, pulled apart by horses, mansun and sky larkin. After a handful of outings via Desire and Too Pure the collective are due to release the ‘low talker’ EP in the new year. As a taster and pulled from that set ‘where I come from’ is an acute primal noise pop nugget earthed in a vintage neo primitive grooving that burns, fizzles and seduces to the cascading of sleekly drilled scowled riff halos which aside falling somewhere on an aural axis pinpointed between Dinosaur Jr and the Flaming Stars manages to nod ever so subtly towards John Carpenter (the New York based psychedelicist not the horror phonic sound track scorer), in short a sub three minute blister kissed babe that sumptuously unravels and fractures deliciously at the two minute mark into a shimmering ear candy laced cacophonic swoon. www.soundcloud.com/memphisindustries/menacebeach_where-I-come-from
From the same label that brought you that quite natty Cosines single, fika recordings latest release – well forthcoming in February is the debuting full length from Swedish cool groovers Making Marks. Entitled ‘a thousand half truths’ the quartet though only getting together in 2012 have already shared the boards with the likes of bonnie prince billy, allo darlin and asobi seksu, just sneaked out as an advance warning as to what to expect comes ‘barcodes’. this homely cutie swoons delicately to the sultry opine of lap steel sighs, the vocals surrendering to the softly hushed radiance of sun glowed pastoral love notes endow it with the kind of fragile pop symmetry that once upon a time appeared to be the preserve of a youthful go betweens.
www.soundcloud.com/fikarecordings/makingmarksbarcodes
Its that time of year again when carollers do sing and good cheer, peace and goodwill is thick in the air (alas you’d think otherwise having read reports about the fisticuffs exchanged at various Asda stores on the black Friday extravaganza) all festooned in tinsel trimmings. As obligatory as turkey, tinsel and toy adverts, these last 15 seasonal year ends – 15 – has it really been that long – have been warmed by the arrival of the Yellow6 xmas selection. a gathering of recordings some unreleased, so reworked, some in alternate forms and some in the early stages of birth, initially only made available to friends, family and various press people though in recent years extended to the status of a fully fledged release, they have served as time capsules giving a brief insight into the huge ever expanding Y6 aural canvas. With reference to the Y6 site this release nearly never happened, it was feared it would be the last, 2013 has been a relatively quiet year by Y6 standards though new material in the guise of ‘dead vox‘ slowly simmers on a back burner and will hopefully see the day sometime next year. As to the assembled tracks here, those who subscribed to that quite sublime Silber outing recently – entitled ‘5’ – will be heartened to find the entire session included here while elsewhere the sounds by and large come pulled from the soundtrack to ‘the retrieval‘. while we send frantic begging requests for hard copies we’d like to draw your attention to the briefest cut on the collection ’two days previous’. this honey comes cast in a frosted spectral glow, fragile and frail there’s a sweetly forlorn John Barry like bruised beauty that ripples with bitter sweet 60’s inflections albeit as though refracted through a godspeed viewfinder. www.yellow6.bandcamp.com
Aside the drone collages, the ice sculptured melodic monoliths and the channelling of natures own mood swings, there‘s always the romantically refined side to the yellow6 persona. non more so is this envisaged and brought to focus than on the ‘terra vacina‘ stilled photo collage wherein the cut ‘and is‘ from his 2002 rocket racer album ‘music for pleasure’ sumptuously soundtracks – a gorgeously hazily glazed hush of silvery tipped shoe gazed shimmers mellowed and murmured in the breathless rubbing of an elegant hand craft traced in euphoric dimples and cast away upon dreamy shivers. www.vimeo.com76088311
Okay as you know the silly season is approaching fast and well we here are still collecting potential offerings for our super duper seasonal bumper missive. So with that in mind we’re saving this one for a missive or two though not before giving it a brief heads up by way of a mention to what’s shaping up to be an early contender for the sets best moment. For a fair few years now the ‘for folk’s sake its Christmas’ compilations have not only been responsible in their fine work at unearthing hidden talent but they’ve also gone a fair way to helping trusted charities with all profits from sales being allocated as such. This years set should hopefully see the coffers of the sterling work done by the doctors without borders swell considerably. As to the compilations a gathering in front of an crackling open fire of fourteen folk types, among the congregation left with pictures, patch and the giant, worry dolls, stornoway and many more besides seduce all in seasonal merriment. As said we’ll be back with this in greater detail at a later missive, for now though our favourite moment so far comes courtesy of the Pollyanna band whose ’Christmas all the time’ is detailed in the kind of lump in throat arresting glow that literally weeps from out of the grooves all twinkled and decorated in a softly teased sepia trimming that aches with dashed hope and a failing lovelorn sigh, utterly crushing but sweet all he same. www.forfolkssake.bandcamp.com/album-for-folks-sake-its-christmas-2013
There’s been a hive of activity of late in all things Genesis P-Orridge related. One of this nations most creative forward thinkers, so often ahead of the curve, P-Orridge drew infamy and repute in equal measure through the reactionary performance art collective Coum transmissions – a Dadaist / fluxus inspired creative multimedia cell. Throbbing Gristle took over when the former floundered, equally infamous they have in recent times been duly credited as being the godfathers of industrial. Psychic TV would ad a further chapter, blending a psych classicism (that nodded to heroes Syd Barrett and Brian Jones) with the oncoming acid culture, this creative wave would provide his most accessible work to date, each of these personas would at varying points be activated and de-activated over the course of time. Its no small secret that our favourite album of 2007 was PTV3’s ’hell is invisible…heaven is her/e.
First of all the Dais imprint, allowed access to the Coum archives continuing in trawl and as a result releases the latest instalment of this ongoing series with ’home aged and the 18 month hope’ upon whose grooves rare recordings from the Coum transmissions library can be found – among the finds – poetry, field recordings, rare radio interviews and live performances including selections culled from an appearance supporting Hawkwind in 1971 re-billed for the event as Edna and the Great Surfers – you can find links to excerpts somewhere below. How times change, once accused as being ‘wreckers of western civilisation’ following their performance of ‘prostitution’ at the ICA in 1976, the establishment under the auspices of Tate Britain acquired the rights of the same several years ago celebrating its influential illustration of the complex relationship between physical performance and its documentation, representation and legacy.
Available now via the first third publishing house is a limited tome entitled ’Genesis Beyer P-Orridge‘. Available in two formats – a standard limited edition of 1323 copies and a special deluxe copy – only 333 pressed that includes a poster, an art catalogue and three specially collated 7 inch singles with the first 100 copies coming with a personalised inscription from Genesis he/herself. An intimate monograph drawn with the help of Leigha Mason and seen through the eyes of over 350 photographs with each accompanied by Genesis’ own personal commentary on each. Further ordering information via www.firstthirdbooks.com
There’s also a preview interview with Genesis currently being aired on the factmag website at www.factmag.com/2013/09/26/genesis-breyer-p-orridge-on-life-art-and-the-quest-for-pandrogyny/ wherein s/he talks openly about meeting his/her soul mate the late Lady Jaye and their third gender agenda whose passing s/he describes as her having ’dropped her body’. elsewhere s/he discusses William S Burroughs, Timothy Leary and receiving harrowing calls from Ian Curtis just before he committed suicide.
Edna and the great surfers excerpt here – www.soundcloud.com/daisrecords/coum-transmissions-adena-and/s-Ab6rg
A rare radio interview with Jim Hawkins for Arena from January 1973 – www.soundcloud.com/dazedandconfused/interview-with-genesis-p
Eleven tracks, total duration just over two minutes, initially came plastered upon a flexi included inside the decibel magazine of which given this dates back to about 2011 I’m not quite certain copies of now exist. Prime ear candy for those who steer clear of sappy seasonal delights and prefer their festive frolics dinked in – shall we say – shock treated agit core. Agoraphobic Nosebleed haven’t worried our stereo in more years than I care to recall which saddens us a tad, in their absence its nice to see they’ve lost none of their impish humour with titles like ’eyes like two piss holes in the snow’, ’no presents this year’ and ’frozen corpse stuff with holiday cheer’ being belched out under the hail of rapid fire annihilation, this treat entitled ’a joyful noise’ is your extreme noise terror, nepalm death and bolt thrower fused sonic bomb with mistletoe. Again this’ll be primed for further words of fondness in a later missive not before we’ve trained your gaze and ears upon the near epic – by their standards anyway – 49 second trouncing of ’little town of Bethlehem’ which I’m certain that prolonged exposure to will surely guarantee you’ll place on the next scheduled hand cart to hell. www.agoraphobicnosebleed.bandcamp.com/album/a-joyful-noise
By all accounts this ‘un has become the biggest selling soundtrack of all time in the country of its origin, Belgium and selected by that nations film critiques as the best foreign picture for the 2014 Academy Awards. ‘the broken circle breakdown’ has been turning heads and having all who’ve heard nodding in agreement as to the exquisiteness of its featured soundtrack, the film about a couple who bond of a shared love for American music was scored by Bjorn Eriksson who by way of utilising traditional bluegrass songs, whittled out a whole raft of new arrangements specially for the film with the songs being performed by the off screen group the broken circle breakdown bluegrass band who formed from out of the films production team. While we scuttle off in search off in search of downloads here’s the films trailer……
New video directed by Canadian multi media artist Jan Swinburne to accompany John 3:16’s frankly awesome ‘obey God’ track which I’m certain we’ve mentioned in passing at one time or another, just to remind you it’s the cosmic industrial prog one with in built arabesque snake-winds that sumptuously nods liberally towards Sabbath’s ’iron man’ – ultra cool…..
Sticking with John 3:16 or to be more precise the label he features on – Alrealon Musique – who I must say at this juncture have been a tad quiet of late – hatch from their hibernation to celebrate their 5th anniversary with a free to download compilation entitled ‘frequencies of existence – 5 years of alrealon musique’ – no details as yet except to say the artwork is by Trey Crim – expect fond words of admiration here soon….. www.alrealonmusique.bandcamp.com/album/frequecies-of-existence-5-years-of-alrealon-musique
Spied on band camp, new to us and new from the Chicago based vinyl / cassette imprint already dead tapes is an essential split offering that pits together the ear ware of Crisis Arm and Dogs. If we were doing a list of year end favourite singles I’d be guessing that Crisis Arm’s quite exquisitely arresting ‘fall’ would be making a last minute shout, a shimmer toned shoe gazed lovely that moors itself on a celestial plateau sighted somewhere on a lunar footing between my bloody valentine, the cranes and curve, all swoon swept dream drifts and dissolving heavenly halos seduced in vapour trailed raptures. That’s not to say that the Dogs are slouches for ’book of Marx’ is a totally different beast, hailing from LA this lot blend a curious weave of post / math rock with a new wave flair, this track finding itself distinctly cut from an austerely edgy cloth upon whose finery a gruff styled Wire sonically converse with a slightly DIY and roughened around the edges Magazine, damn fine if you ask me. Only 50 copies available. www.alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com
Fancy something shall we say smoking and sophisticated, then kick back a spell and fall head long into the dreamy folds of telepath. Alas no information on these dudes except to say they hail from Japan and beyond that the trail runs cold. One things for certain they do a neat line in down tempo trimmed lounge exotica especially on track 2 – apologies but we can’t get our translator to kick in – wherein the lush 70’s slinky soul motifs ooze to the cool seduction of an Edwin Moses soundtrack retreated by Emperor Penguin. Opening cut ’tomorrow’ is a mellowing slice of lights out after dark ambient elegance tweaked finitely in the kind of frosted cosmic tropicalia afterglow that recalls a reclining Manual. Somewhere else ’blue’ sounds like a nifty slice of 70’s styled retro TV test card groove while for us the parting ’sunset’ provides the set with its best moment – a kind of orbiting ice cream van driven by the Go Team with the third eye foundation manning the serving hatch all trimmed in sepia and festooned in Polaroids depicting forgotten summers, quite sweet if you ask me./ www.telepathtelepath.bandcamp.com/album/–2
A rare outing for one of the most obscure and hard to find singles of the late 60’s and early 70’s, rumours differ greatly as to how many original copies actually made it out of the door with some speculation suggesting just 50 privately pressed sorts found their way to the grooviest heads at the time. Rescued from oblivion a few years back when featured on one of those vault opening compilations ‘psychedelic minds‘ via world in sound, there’s little information on these dudes except to say they hailed from the northern state of France, St Quentin. Now aired via a limited 7 inch pressing on the kameleon blow mind’s ’they’re coming’ is set to flip wigs with its full on kaleidoscopic psych soul wooziness for this babe is just out there and flying, a prime slab of trip wiring stoner freak beat groove oozed in lysergic weaves and so shit faced you can get high just for being in earshot of the blighter.
Now I’ll admit we’ve been a little lax where hidden shoal is concerned, head honcho Cam has sent along a stack of download links all of which are scattered here there and everywhere on our hard drive, so I’ll take this opportunity to apologise for oversights. Downloads are great for simplicity and ease but oft get overlooked. Well that’s our excuse and I’m sticking with it. I say all this because via a face book activity posting we eyed this little darling. More associated with all things shoe gazed and dream popped, here’s a little off road detour into fragile ambient minimalism courtesy of Jumpel. Culled from their ’bloc4’ full length, ’pool’ is a divinely demurred slice of drift pop, bitter sweetly graceful and lonesome, this ice sculptured lovely navigates an as were neglected star zone wooing its voids in an somnambulant floorshow of serenely dinked vapour trails, utterly affectionate and elegiac in short. www.soundcloud.com/hidden_shoal/jumpel-pool
And back with Alrealon Musique, round about now there should be available to pick up a new album from PAS musique / band shifter, a 16 track tour document culling material collected on their travels back in April and May earlier this year wherein they visited Belgium, Germany, Austria and Poland. ‘entitled lost and found in Europe’ the CD edition comes replete with full colour 20 page booklet, the label has sneaked out a preview cut in the shape of a collage recorded live in Torun, Poland – a mind bending exercise in strange frequency manipulation, both disorientating and alien not to say heavy and hypnotic, this slice of cosmic dub pulses like some subliminal intergalactic transmission crying out ‘buy me, buy me, buy me’ in binary form, very weird. www.alrealonmusique.bandcamp.com/album/tour-2013–sounds-alrn042
In the last hour three things have loosely dropped in our laps causing us to skip merrily around the gaff which aside giving cause to Dylan the house cat to go into hysterics has I fear nearly had our heart failing in a swooning overload, first up new album from Schizo Fun Addict (reviewed a little later and already deeply lodged in our affections after just one listen), a spiffing looking 10 DVD / Book set bringing to a close Warp films 10th anniversary celebrations – more about that briefly in a short while – and well – the return of Linda Perhacs. ’parallelograms’ perhaps one of the finest psych folk albums ever, its re-issue a year or two ago via sundazed proved that it had aged well and unlike many of its contemporaries still stood up today as a audio document of rare magical quality. Some forty years on and word is out of new recordings gathered up by Asthmatic Kitty and due for release in March entitled ’the soul of all natural things’. as a taster the label have released a Kyle Safieh directed video to accompany the track ’freely’. truly mesmerising stuff, okay not as woozy or unearthly as was on ’parallelograms’ but still enchanted with a magically ethereal quality that spell crafts its mesmeric love note amid an intoxicating romantic potion dimpled in pastoral ripples all cast upon an un-tethered panoramic canvas of free flowing beauty which some how make the intervening 44 years blur and dissolve apparition like in a forgotten haze.
Culled from a forthcoming debut full length platter, Nugent and Belle formerly the Alice Band have been graciously cited in the same breath as Alison Krauss, KT Tunstall and Joni Mitchell by their press people which might prove just now a heavy burden to carry at such an early stage in their nurturing, safe to say that there’s more than enough of a sweetly engaging pop prowess attaching to ’doves’ as it shuffles, stumbles and quicksteps to a porch lit procession of honeyed harmonies and homely lilts as to suggest it radiates like a softly smouldering Bangles. The kind of thing that once upon a time the eminent spit n polish / shoeshine stable would have pounced on. www.soundcloud.com/nugentandbelle/doves
If like me your memory has a habit of failing then we’d like to bring to recall the small question of a new pop platter from Scouse rapscallions the harlequin dynamite marching band – out via Kazimer records right now – we mentioned this at Tales from the Attic – Volume XIV via www.marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/tales-from-the-attic-xiv/ – quite essential ear gear.
New soon from burger / silver hornet – January to be precise – is a flame hot piping slab of twang gouged psychobilly boogie from the rebel set entitled ‘how to make a monster’ – by way of a taster the track ‘monster’ has been exhumed from the vaults to set panic and hysteria upon stereophonic sets across the globe, a quickly drilled two minute blizzard of mutant rock-a-hula is what’s on offer packed with scuzzed out twang charges for maximum Dale dragster scowling all kissed with the kind of psychobilly pyrotechnics rarely heard here since those early day outings by the Reverend Horton Heat. www.soundcloud.com/teamclermont/the-rebel-set-monster
Sitting somewhere in a bizarre place between the Dave Cronenberg‘s Wife, lupen crook and the Ukranians are where you’ll find gorgeous george on the great pop spectrum, blended upon a musical tongue well versed in a crooked musical hall vintage and serviced in Victoriana shanty chic there’s an acutely impish cheeky chappie meets Fagan-esque wink that lightly picks away at the pockets of ‘when I go out on Saturday night’ as it weaves bleary eyed to a sozzled geezer-ish groove. Loveably infectious – the accompanying video incidentally features Howard Marks.
Why oh why does this draw me back to Mercury Rev’s ‘carwash hair’ and why is it that its managed to indelibly burn itself upon our affections in just one listening, is it its lazy eyed cool, its irresistibly cute slacker vibe, its quickly drilled rap mantra or the fact its possessed of a sentiment that we sadly can share though on more occasions than I care top count. Gloom Balloon are anything but. The solo project of a certain Patrick Tape Fleming who one time or another headed up Poison Control Center. After successful tours with pavement, apples in stereo and of montreal the band went into prolonged hibernation, it was here that Fleming fell headlong into depression, taking up painting a 6 foot canvas named Gloom Balloon revealed to all who saw his near critical fall and unravelling mental state. And then news came to pass of the death of his musical hero Bill Doss, as the press release says ’Gloom Balloon decided to live’. released via the maximum ames imprint, ’she was the one that got away’ is culled from his debuting full length ’you make me feel like a natural disaster / fix the sunshine pts 1-7’ – a shimmering summer toned cutie all tripping drum beats marooned within a smoking hip hop wash of sax’s, horns and flutes, gorgeously airy and dreamy and made all the more attractive by a brief but notable burst of gospel groove. Nuff said… www.soundcloud.com/teamclermont/gloom-balloon-she-was-the-one
There’s an ongoing and long overdue Mai Mai Mai review that we need to nail into a finished product, we will get onto this task in the coming days, however for now latest on boring machines or at least imminent we assume – is a debuting vinyl set from Von Tesla entitled ‘raised by clear acid’ which should when ready comes housed in a by all accounts natty looking double face folding Corpoc screen printed sleeve replete with download codes to access 46 minutes worth of exclusive sounds. For now the label has posted up opening track ’n3’ as a teaser. Using a old analogue korg MS-20 and a Roland TR-909, ’n3’ stirs bleakly like some damnable dystopian future view, an apocalyptic nightmare scenario digging deep into the ’Blade Runner’ heartland to culture a bleak storm wind where man is no longer this domains predator elect but a passing afterthought, the hunter turned the hunted as were – sound wise this falls headlong into the same inner space void as the Revenant Sea though here found dipping its toes in elements of brooding Radiophonic ear wear as well as the primitive electronic sounds of Cabaret Voltaire. www.soundcloud.com/boringmachines/von-tesla-n3
From Von Tesla to Tesla, seamless links time – it appears these blighters over at Gnod HQ haven’t been quite as hot off the presses with alerts as we’d like given the labels sneaked out a shed load of cassette releases with not so much as a hello. I’m certain we’ll get around to all of them at some stage though for now we’d advise you to swivel your cyber radar in the general locale of release #12 which features the fractured mechanoid wares of Run Dust. As ever strictly limited to just 50 copies all replete with download codes for non believers in old school analogue, this release features the hard technoid groove gouges of Run Dust who for the squares among you is better known to kith n kin as Ronald Dossier. ‘trank gun’ is a 30 minute head kicking sonic fright wig revealing the schizoid nature of Dossier’s craft that’s to say when he’s not pummelling the hell out of your headspace with his tooled up and in your face battle forged Wagon Christ hitting melting point ‘mistgrenzen’ he‘s apt to go all minimalist funky on your hide on the kraut grooved ‘bruklayer’ – the former a fierce some Dadaist power surging mutant techno beast bending sound curves upon which sit on opposing ends Front 242 and SPK while the latter you could easily imagine stumbling bleary eyed off the groove edges of something emerging from the klangbad imprint. Somewhere else the mind wiping subterranean pulsars of ‘wakers’ – perhaps the most accessible cut here – is a perception altering locked grooved beauty lush with arabesque squiggles riding a tigerbeat6 wave upon a mid 80’s Cabaret Voltaire cosmic surf board. ‘wakers II’ is tripper still, think Muslim Gauze rewiring the back catalogue of Louis and Bebe Barron and relocating it deep in a Tibetan heartland. Personally our favourite moment is the opening ’glintcorp’ – a head flipping slab of skittish robotoid trance which aside having us recalling an as were sparsely degraded ‘rock it’ era Herbie Hancock had us imagining some punch you out fisticuffs bout between two retro styled rock em and sock em bots….. www.teslatapes.bandcamp.com/album/run-dust-trank-gun
No sooner do Fruits de Mer get the year end celebrations shipped out then they’re already started looking ahead to the new year and beyond. Keen eyed spotters among you will have noticed postings on their website giving hint as to their Spring collection – amounting to 5 new 7 inches – among the roll call of invited guests Us and Them return to fold while Mega Dodo stars Crystal Jacqueline and the Honey Pot share the spoils of a double disc offering, elsewhere there’s releases from Schnauser, Bronco Bullfrog and Schizo Fun Addict – the latter of whom turn in a by all accounts killer cover of Goblin’s ‘suspiria’ – details as yet to come but all the same go to www.fruitsdemerrecords.com
Which leads us nicely to ‘the sun yard’ – the latest full length from Schizo Fun Addict. This has been a long time coming, aside the sporadic hushed hints from head honcho Jet throughout the year it seems ’the sun yard’ has been on and off the back burner in the idea stage going back as long as their debuting platter for the Bracken imprint (the label from which Fruits de Mer rose – incidentally that aforementioned cut appeared on a split with the boy from space entitled ‘Jericho son down‘ which along with their second for the label – ‘dream of the Portugal keeper’ – both happen to feature here). It hasn’t all been quiet on the Schizo related front, earlier this year Jet posted a new cut ’I’m gone’ co-written with Benbo aka Tris / Black Tulips. Elsewhere Schizo matters had taken a backseat with preoccupations consumed by various side projects, some manifesting considerably, most notably the ‘towers’ film which directed by Jet has since gone on to receive critical applause from the independent film cognoscenti.
And so to ‘the sun yard’ – three plays in and counting – the fourth full length from Schizo Fun Addict discounting 2008‘s ‘imperial quazar’ which according to its authors was ’an electro compilation’ of sorts available to download for free on Christmas Day – indeed free I kid you not and they say the seasonal spirit is lost. And so you might be thinking – okay where’s the catch, and if there is no catch, is it any cop or has it simply been cobbled together in haste. I admire your scepticism but think on for the last time a free to download album of such quality was drop kicked our way as a result causing much celebrated hoo-hah was the Crimea’s ‘secrets of the witching hour’ which ended up vying for affections with PTV3’s ‘hell is invisible, s/he is heaven’ as that years album of the year. Awaiting patiently sit 11 solid gold cuts comprising just shy of 34 minutes of perfection. No fillers, no flaws, no lightweights, just a collection of grooves that should by rights elevate the Schizo’s to critical praise and I don’t say this likely. A finite blending of soft psych, kaleidoscopic pop, beautified pastorals and buzz sawed bubble groove is what’s on offer. The set opens with ‘awesome lovin’ and from therein your hooked upon a dream weaving voyage final stop ‘Jericho son down’, between these bookends there’s a nifty Nada Surf cover ‘blizzard of ‘77’ (here cooled, smoked and served up to radiate in a wonderfully homely softly dimpled shelling that recalls a latter career Quickspace) and a kind of homage to Ramones and forest park via ‘forest park bandshell renegades’ (a buttoned down scowl at you scuzzed and scuffed riot of sound that cutely references ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’). elsewhere the smoked shimmer toned and spaced out milky white soft psych folk of ’St Andrews’ is cast upon a timeless misty enchantment that sees it sonically spell weaving aural apparitions traced in a lysergic magicalia which admirers of Broadcast may well appreciate.
Best moments of the set – so many to chose from though pricking our earlobes album opener the ultra sexy space rocking ‘awesome lovin‘, a trip-a-delic psychotropic dream weaved trance trip hopped honey that takes its initial cue from Primal Scream and then finds itself fed through the kaleidoscopic spin dryer of Fuxa to come on like a sumptuous tie-dyed slab of third eye peaking cosmicalia. Equally turning heads ‘pterodactyl’ with its laser locked riff struts shimmers in a hallucinogenic haze pouting and kicking to a dead eyed shock treated glam psych motif. All said we here are still I must admit somewhat smitten by the genteel afterglow emitting from ‘dream of the Portugal keeper’ which we still reckon sounds like a smoked slice of ethereal psyche folk exotica that imagines Camera Obscura under the woozy tutelage of an out there and softly sultry Burt Bacharach. A late but all to essential last minute addition to year end best of lists.
I kid not but it literally took nanoseconds for us to be hooked by this, imminent on Sonic Cathedral / Captcha – well I say imminent – tis in fact February – arrives the third album from Mexican psychedelicists Lorelle meets the Obsolete entitled ‘chambers’. recorded by Cave’s Cooper Crain and mastered by Sonic Boom so you know immediately its got the right credentials ’music for dozens’ has been sneaked out as a taster of what looming on the horizons, an absolute gorgeously shitfaced and wasted slab of swamp dragged twang belching voodoo psych blues that plugs directly into the bardo pond mainframe albeit that’ll be bardo pond on different drugs and squaring up to Gallon Drunk. Stunning in a word. www.soundcloud.com/sonic-cathedral/lorelle-meets-the-obsolete-2
Either somewhere here or in the last missive we mentioned this to much festooning of bunting, from Japanese Gum its called ’homesick’ – think we said it was a bit of a trip-a-delic meeting between Lemon Jelly and the Aloof forged together and thrown in a kaleidoscopic spin dryer powered by a youthful Animal Collective – or words to that effect. Album ‘high dreams’ is out about now digitally somewhere or other with promises of a vinyl outing next month – here’s a new video to accompany he track……
Best thing to have sauntered through our speakers since the Simple Kid’s limited ‘the road’ outing for the esteemed Static Caravan I’ll have you know, just love its off road Beck like slacker-esque groove, anyhow it comes from the zzips who if ‘end of rock n roll’ is anything to judge by might just be ones to watch next year. Per the press release this trio used to be sworn enemies each busking on the streets of London, hostilities curdled amid pitched battles, malicious rumour mongering, turf wars and the occasional drive by guitar string snapping incidents – woah woah woah – drive by string snapping incidents – have I just stumbled into a film 4 Guy Ritchie script. Anyhow after a few further slaps and bouts of mean spiritedness in order to even up tallies, they shook hands deciding to deploy their strengths for the greater good namely zzapping (did you see what I did there – hey we’re no slouches) your stereophonic sound system with some smoking cool thoroughbred blues ear candy which to these lobes sounds not unlike some back to basics pulse feeling gathering of road cruising Harrison, Dylan and Petty types just chilling out on moonshine and cranking up on the attitude. Incidentally out on S16 music.
Video sound link here……
No hiding the fact that we are quite adoring of this one – a limited 7 inch single outing from Chicago based Uncle and Nephew duo Casimer & Casimir. Out via the Brille imprint ‘o sweet Joe Pye’ is quite frankly the most acutely affectionate pop nugget we’ve heard in a fair old while, opens to a would be statically charged monochrome tuning of classic era Motown motifs before falling headlong into a bracing sun popping shimmer that’s desirably dinked and demurred by the kind of pristinely perky pop infectiousness that imagines the hand craft of Van Dyke Parks being brought to bear and blossom upon a studio meeting of Ben Folds 5 and the Heartstrings types. Utterly gorgeous.
Those of you still compiling your end of lists might want to consider a few choice picks from the Graveface stable, a busy 2013 run out has seen the label issue forth a formidable stash of full lengths. First up Xiu Xiu’s ‘Nina’ – just out – finds Jamie Stuart turning his affectionate gaze towards Nina Simone with a covers album like you’ve never heard the likes of. Aided and abetted by a enviable cast of musical friends Stuart and co dissect, detune, deconstruct and relocate the Simone legacy into a darkly brooding jazz noir landscape that’s as haunting and fractured as it is sublimely realised – www.soundcloud.com/graveface/xiu-xiu-dont-smoke-in-bed
Called to our attention way back in Tales from the Attic Volume XII wherein there was much swooning at the succulent sounds emanating from ‘we are the dreamers’ by Pennsylvanian dream poppers the Stargazer Lilies. With an album just out titled ‘we are the dreamers’ here’s another seductive slice of star gazing sheen pop in the shape of ‘endless days’ which we should say at this point is even more gorgeous than the previously mention title cut dinked as it is I ethereal cascades of vapour trailing effervescence much recalling a variant of Lush remodelled by Slowdive. www.soundcloud.com/graveface/the-stargazer-lilies-endless
Mentioned Dott in passing a few missives ago when we were fondly taken back by a track ’small pony’ culled from their debuting full length ‘swoon’ which I seem to recall we did promise to check out but due to our hapless nature we somehow managed to mislay said downloads. All said in passing of ‘small pony’ we commented upon its ‘riot of colourfully teen tingled effervescence’. for those who ignored the hints first time of asking here’s another cut from the same aforementioned set. ’talk to you’ reveals a more considered facet to the Dott persona, a bitter sweet beauty that smoulders to a pristinely purred pop matrix that unless our ears do deceive freefalls into slow burn sounds capes of Kristen Hersh. www.soundcloud.com/graveface/talk-to-you
And from Dott to Dosh who is better known to kith n’ kin as one Martin Dosh, currently to be found sporting a full length set by the name ‘milk money’ from which ‘golden silver’ is culled. Simply exquisite, a sumptuous master class in symphonic electro elegance, the use of space, the way he fills the canvas and the layer by layer blossoming in depth, detail and stature is unreal, an aural snow globe dimpled in woozy lunar pastoral pirouettes, quite breathless. www.soundcloud.com/graveface/dosh-golden-silver
Last up for this Graveface soiree comes Tracy Shedd whose new long playing set ‘Arizona’ is in fact out via the New Granada imprint, here found assisted by her husband James Tritten as well as he accompanying guest appearances of rosebuds types and Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb who as it happens supplies vocals for what is a simply stunning dreamy and mellowing re-framing of Sonic Youth’s ‘teenage riot’ which you can hear here – www.soundcloud.com/newgranada/tracy-shedd-teenage-riot
Latest, or at least the imminent and forthcoming via Trensmat sees the second full length – for the label that is – of New Zealand sound sculptor Antony Milton under his AM guise. As ever ultra limited, pressed up heavy duty coloured wax all housed in your typically eye catching sleeves and each coming complete with download codes of the six featured tracks. Now this follows hot on the heels of last years ‘black night burning set’ entitled ‘Dragonfly’ – it is in all honesty ultra cool. And with that we could have happily walked away, job done but I’m guessing you need a little more cajoling. Let’s try this then. Does your heart skip to blister kissed space grooves – check. Are you the kind of soul likely to subscribe to sounds that blur the psych, NZ noise pop and kraut rock divides – check. Do you like your listening experiences a tad wasted, trippy and tranced out and approaching the kind of freakish bliss kissed groove oft engaged by My Cat is an Alien albeit in shorter, sharper doses – check. Taking the concept of chill out to a whole different level, AM embarks on a journey, it’s a journey into the uncharted backwaters of krautrock’s vastly expanding spectrum for here be stoned out slabs of monolith skree that equally channel as much into the hallowed territories of say Neu! and Amon Duul (title track ‘dragonfly’ certainly proving the case in point shaping up as it does into a spacewalking slab of oblivion overdrive with a detectable undercurrent of Sabbathian ‘iron man‘-esque pulsars buried deep in its core access mainframe) as they do Bruce Russell and the other forward thinking sonic alchemists cutting their teeth upon the native home grown noise scene of the late 80’s. to the actual sounds then – opens with ’fake union of uplifted charlatans’ – a freakish wig flipping belching beatnik mutant mantra, a totally bonged psychotropic bad boy blessed with a funky underpin – which sticking necks out awaiting the onslaught of nay saying responses carefully crafted with harsh words of Anglo Saxon patronage – sounds like – if you scrunch your ears up ‘the lion sleeps tonight’ – nah just joking wanted to check you were still on your toes – do me a favour pass me that peace pipe over again I’m in need of a toot or two as I fear I’m losing the plot somewhat. The aptly titled ‘glass world’ is just that, a sparse hypnotic slice of vapour trailed ambience forged upon sustained orbs of bowed aural manipulations woozily dissolving, dissipating and reforming in the ether, very blissed out Aidan Baker if you ask me. For us the sets best moment by some distance is the galactic grandeur that is ’helioscope’, possessed of an almost monastic aura amid its shimmering silvery spun astral cloud opining into the desolate depths of the cosmic voids there’s a perceptible dead echo howl instilling a somewhat eerie disquiet to proceedings. Somewhere else ‘eight to eight’ is a horror phonic slab of scalding glitch gouged 8bit dementia whilst those of you fondly recalling Sonic Boom face off with Sunray for that ‘dream machine’ release a few years ago on the, as was, critically cool Earworm imprint may well be advised to check out the sets parting shot ‘true believer’. recorded live this hulking 13 minute mesmeric monolith is a skree scorched celestial carousel trip wired amid a backdrop of critical meltdown collages and the mind altering weave of the skull numbing cacophony of fury spasms. Recommended.
Next missive is a bumper Xmas missive special featuring oodles upon oodles of snow crusted pop gems..
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Marklosingtoday
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