I should be more up on my Coyote Clean Up considering he’s from Detroit and I’m pretty sure he’s friends with people I’m friends with, but I haven’t heard too much of his stuff until this, his debut LP on 100% Silk. Like most stuff on the label, this is slightly cloudy but still highly melodic and danceable lo-fi house, with plenty of clipped vocal samples, which aren’t always comprehensible, but seem to have a longing, affectionate tone to them. The songs are tight and compact, moving from section to section and never dragging on too long, always keeping the dancefloor moving. “Double Dip Dub” hustles at a bit of a faster pace than the rest of the album, as does the title track. “Awesome Luv” is probably the track that sticks in the head the most, probably due to the fact that the lyrics are a bit more understandable, and hit quite hard: “Think about you forever, so make it downtown whenever.” A really solid album, although as far as 100% Silk’s output this year, Octo Octa’s album still reigns supreme as far as emotional, beautiful house music that resonates and moves me.
Pretty exquisitely designed 3″. Almost all of the writing (liner notes, titles, etc.) are in Greek, so I can’t really tell what’s going on, but one of the few English phrases in the notes is “Cattle Mutilation”. First track is a 6 minute organ drone with is nearly silent for the first minute, and features some Greek spoken word in the middle. The second track is under 3 minutes and has a constant knocking beat which seems to restart every 10 seconds, along with humming, bursts of distortion, and more spoken word. Track 3 is more formless distorted rumbling and feedback, with a news broadcast-like spoken word overdub in the middle. 4 has layers of wavy, dark-moonlit-streets synth covered in grainy static, with a small PA-distorted voice calling from the corner. The last track begins with more straightforward, unaccompanied words spoken in Greek, then a galloping live drum beat comes in, along with spiky, industrialized guitar, playing a blues-derived rock rhythm and adding another layer of distorted guitar, coming close to a solo, but not quite doing that.
This one kind of flew under the radar, but I’m glad I caught it, because it’s pretty top-notch Tim Hecker-like slightly corroded drone. Dark and bruised, but always breathing and holding its head up. Scratched, swirling tones, but a constant bass pulse pushing things forward, even if it’s dragging its heels in mud. A few guitar riffs are used sparingly, sticking out like a weathered signpost pointing to a trace of civilization coming ahead while you’re walking through streets lined with abandoned buildings in an empty city. “Campaign Cycles / Harrowing Straits” opens with speech (probably Obama) distorted mostly beyond comprehensibility, except towards the end when he states that America is the greatest nation on earth. The rest of the track is clouded, slightly rusted drone with just a hint of light peaking through. “Ritual Ashes” is a short, ethereal piece with guitar notes being plucked in a field of insects humming. “The Apocraphyl Atlases” has guitar notes skipping like a dial tone, short circuiting and crackling away, with an excess of static for the second half of its 13 minutes. “An Angle Of Grain” is sort of a distant coda to this, with a little more of that skipping dial tone sound, but with a bit more of a blued, mellowed tone.
Not quite as blissy as some of the other CTatsu releases, this one’s a bit more unsettling and mysterious. The Hobo Cubes side has sporadic, delay-heavy beats, spectre-like synth flares, bubbling/swirling liquid-like vibrations, and halfway through, some chanting monk-like vocals. The last 4 minutes sound like a rhythmic, amplified electric fence frying in the rain, finally starting to singe and emit neon light, before getting abruptly cut off at the end of the side. Jonathan James Carr’s side is more swirling, unsettling laser-like sounds, flowing and crystallizing and mutating. There’s always a smooth electric organ-like drone underneath, which is pretty vibrant itself, but then there’s arpeggiating and blossoming tones on top of it. And sounds constantly warp and change and move through phases. It’s pretty neat.
Truly astounding doom metal, utilizing heavenly choirs, strings, synths, plenty of swirling production and noise, and shrieked vocals that sound like a rooster being electrocuted. The liner notes even credit a spiritual advisor! I always claim that I know nothing about metal and any time I end up liking something it ends up being Pitchfork-approved hipster metal, and given that Thrill Jockey is releasing this, this probably is no different, but fuck, just listen to this. The first track, “I, The Mourner Of Perished Days”, is just solemn female vocals and a slowly growing tornado of sounds and effects, then “To Attempt Openness” starts with the crushing riffs and howling vocals, with brilliant usage of feedback noise. “Melt Away” starts with dialog samples and choir vocals before the shrieking starts. “An Altar Or A Grave” features sorrowful strings in the beginning, as well as the crushing riffs and shrieking. “Failure To Desire To Communicate” is a little more upbeat, at least in the first minute, but it still bludgeons you with smashing cymbals and punishing, bloody guitar riffs. “Night Of Blood In A World Without End”, like the first track, features clear female vocals over a bed of strings, which slowly gets eaten by feedback distortion. “Prayers Unanswered” is slow and sludgy and has a breakdown with distorted spoken vocals. “Denial Of The Species” is a bit more electronic, with a slow, crunchy distorted beat and more synths, and the last minute has some discordant strings. “Shrouded” begins with a minute of hissing distortion noise, before the thundering drums, riffs and vocals take over. This track definitely has the most detailed drums/programming of the album. “Bearer Of Bad Things” is harsh, pummeling black metal, which gets interrupted by powerdrill noise, like Wolf Eyes crashing a Bathory show. Seriously an incredible album. The vocals might take some getting used to if this type of music isn’t your thing, but it’s harsh and weird and fucked up and awesome.
William Onyeabor: World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor?
Like Francis Bebey’s African Electronic Music 1975-1982 collection from 2 years ago, this is a revelatory collection of funky, futuristic African music which was almost completely unheard until now (at least outside of Africa). The back cover lists a partial, theoretical backstory, so I’m not sure how David Byrne managed to license his music for a release on Luaka Bop, but we should all be so glad he did because this is INCREDIBLE. I’ve heard a few of these tracks on WFMU and have been fiending for more. The track that really piqued my interest was “Good Name”, a truly brilliant 10-minute space-disco track from 1983, which stands up to any of the best underground American and European disco of the era. “Good name is better than silver and gold and nobody can buy my good name”. Fuck yes. Otherwise, we have midtempo funk (“Body and Soul”), Afro-soul with strangely Yoko-ish background vocals (“Atomic Bomb”), uptempo echo-ey funky Afrobeat with horns and keyboards (“Something You Will Never Forget”, “Heaven and Hell”), heavy scratchy-guitar anti-war Afrobeat (“Why Go To War”), and lo-fi disco love songs (“Love Is Blind”, “Let’s Fall In Love”, “Fantastic Man”). Truly mind-warping synths and drum machines, great lyrics, understated vocals, and just seriously funky grooves. Easily one of the best reissues of the year!
After well over a dozen cassette, vinyl and digital releases, Dominick Fernow’s Muslimgauze-inspired project Vatican Shadow is now releasing its first “proper” album (what does that even mean these days? just because this is released on CD means it’s “proper”?). Compared to Prurient and most of his other projects, there’s very little noise here, just desolate electronic beats and synths. After a brief shadowy intro, “Tonight Saddam Walks Amidst Ruins” has downtempo beats and an almost darkwave feel to it. “Muscle Hijacker Tribal Affiliation” is sparse techno, but with the beats at half-mast and used sparingly, along with small ripples of synth. “Contractor Corpses Hung Over The Euphrates River” picks up the pace a bit, with a knocking, almost future-garage/post-dubstep beat, with a more thudding, clanging mid-90s Aphex-ian beat added, plus slightly acidic synths, again used sparingly. Really good track. “Enter Paradise” has a midtempo pounding beat and guitars, very Godflesh-y. “Remember Your Black Day” is more straightforward Richie Hawtin-esque minimal techno with a slowly building beat, but with faint organ in the background. “Not The Son Of Desert Storm, But The Child Of Chechnya” is crunchy industrial techno with some ghostly voice-like synths in the background. Banger! “Jet Fumes Above The Reflecting Pool” is another slow darkwave/industrial track with guitars and cold synths, but gets more detailed beat patterns. Definitely a far cry from Prurient albums like Shipwrecker’s Diary, this is some haunting stuff for sure.
mic break music = We Like Ambient compilation series
Hour 1
3:02 AM William Onyeabor ~ Good Name ~ Who Is William Onyeabor? ~ Luaka Bop
3:12 AM Vatican Shadow ~ Contractor Corpses Hung Over The Euphrates River ~ Remember Your Black Day ~ Hospital Productions
3:24 AM Phoenecia ~ Odd Jobs (Systems Mono Version by Autechre) ~ Odd Jobs ~ Schematic
3:30 AM µ-Ziq ~ Poc ~ Somerset Avenue Tracks (1992-1995) ~ Planet Mu
3:35 AM Steve Hauschildt ~ Ampersands ~ S/H ~ Editions Mego
3:39 AM Oneohtrix Point Never ~ Still Life ~ R Plus Seven ~ Warp
3:43 AM The Field ~ Cupid’s Head ~ Cupid’s Head ~ Kompakt
3:50 AM Huerco S. ~ Quivira ~ Colonial Patterns ~ Software
3:55 AM LX Sweat ~ Addicted To Your Love ~ City Of Sweat ~ Not Not Fun
3:58 AM Slow Magic ~ Moon ~ Triangle ~ LebensStrasse Records Hour 2
4:05 AM The Body ~ An Altar Or A Grave ~ Christs, Redeemers ~ Thrill Jockey
4:10 AM RH ~ Embayed ~ New Bedford Squall ~ Inam Records
4:15 AM Lady Lazarus ~ Wonder, Inc. ~ All My Love In Half Light ~ self-released
4:22 AM The Stranger ~ About To Enter A Strange New Period ~ Watching Dead Empires In Decay ~ Modern Love
4:27 AM White Poppy ~ Dead Night ~ White Poppy ~ Not Not Fun
4:37 AM Former Selves ~ Watercourse Way ~ Betrayed By The Angels/Apropos Of Golden Dreams (split LP w/ Kevin Greenspon) ~ Bridgetown
4:44 AM Plankton Wat ~ Nightfall ~ Drifter’s Temple ~ Thrill Jockey
4:48 AM Ensemble Economique ~ Blindfold Me ~ Fever Logic ~ Not Not Fun
4:55 AM Dustin Wong ~ Vision Waterfall ~ Mediation Of Ecstatic Energy ~ Thrill Jockey Hour 3
5:01 AM Kirsten Carey ~ Boyaboy ~ The Ulysses Project ~ self-released
5:05 AM Francois Houle & Havard Wiik ~ Woodhoopoe ~ Aves ~ Songlines
5:09 AM Land Of Kush ~ Mobil Nil ~ The Big Mango ~ Constellation
5:14 AM Boyle ~ 8Feb2013 ~ 2013Disc1 ~ self-released
5:19 AM Celebrate Music Synthesizer Group ~ Hazeman ~ Celebrate Music Synthesizer Group ~ Sun Ark
5:25 AM R. Stevie Moore ~ Horizontal Hideaway ~ Delicate Tension ~ Personal Injury
5:27 AM R. Stevie Moore ~ Don’t Let Me Go To The Dogs ~ Delicate Tension ~ Personal Injury
5:36 AM Botany ~ Cant/Goosemother ~ Lava Diviner (Truestory) ~ Western Vinyl
5:39 AM Computer Jay ~ Destination Destiny ~ Savage Planet Discotheque Vol. 2 ~ Pugilista Trading
5:42 AM Jyoti ~ Turiya’s Smile ~ Denderah ~ SomeOthaShip
5:46 AM The Poets of Rhythm ~ Discern/Define ~ Anthology 1992-2003 ~ Daptone
5:50 AM London Grammar ~ Stay Awake ~ If You Wait ~ Columbia
5:54 AM Jessy Lanza ~ Giddy ~ Pull My Hair Back ~ Hyperdub
5:57 AM Shigeto ~ Olivia ~ No Better Time Than Now ~ Ghostly International
Crush Collision 10/10/13
11:02 PM Detromental ~ X Amount Of Respect
11:06 PM Mikey B with Urban Hype ~ Relapsed
11:10 PM Black Widow ~ The Stalk
11:12 PM Impact Crew ~ Feel Good
11:16 PM ASC ~ Dreadlox
11:18 PM NTT ~ Badboy Spirit
11:23 PM Cool Hand Flex ~ Out Of Control
11:26 PM DJ B & EZM ~ Shocking To The Break Of Dawn
11:31 PM Killersound ~ What Is A Ragga Twin
11:34 PM M.A.D. ~ Drum Dance
11:41 PM Hardcore Rhythm Team ~ Do U C The Light
11:44 PM DJ Senator & The Bagman ~ Tranqued
11:49 PM Funky T ~ The Guvnor
11:53 PM Abreaction ~ The Mind
11:58 PM ECT ~ Make It Right
From the same label as Olekranon, Vopat and Sujo comes the newest project by presumably the same artist. RH (the mysterious man’s initials) focuses on dark ambient and drone, doing away with the heavy drum machine beats and doom-metal riffs, but still going with dread, darkness and despair. Guitar seems to be used here to create dark, churning drones, but there’s also some dour funeral horns (or synthetic approximations of such) on opener “Dharisee” and some rustling, crackling noise in the background. “Embayed” actually does use some drum machine (mostly cymbals and a low thump) but drowns everything in rhythmic distortion. “Timoneer” is like a soundtrack to a grainy, decaying film sequence about a ghost town. OK, “Lazaret” does also have some slowly thudding beats and droney metal guitars, but they’re way in the background. Everything about this song just sounds so distant and fading. “Receiver of Wrecks”, the final song, is another dour funeral drone (albeit a funeral that occurs in a cloud of fog too thick to see through). Free download on Bandcamp.
The Answer Is In The Beat 