December 11, 2021 at 2:03 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Galactapus: You Better Not Cry
Willfully bizarre
Christmas-themed music from a bunch of weirdos from Minneapolis. They dress up in weird costumes and sing with weird voices, and they remain anonymous, so it’s not hard to compare them to The Residents, but I like this better. They deconstruct familiar yuletide standards, playing offbeat synths and toy instruments, and repeating some lyrics rather than sing the songs straight. They open the EP with an evil-sounding song about joy. “Santasm” is short and ends in an explosion. “You Better Watch Out” is a synth-punk laser-fest which repeats the first line of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”. “You Could Have Been Nicer” gets pretty chaotic and not all that Christmas-y. “Sleep In Peace” is a pretty stunning “Silent Night” which starts noisy and droney and then turns into goofy minimal synth a la Crash Course In Science. “Gingerbread Man” is a mega silly song with cartoon sound fx that basically sounds like it was actually made by a gingerbread man. “Masters of Joy” is goofy art-punk. “Sugar Plum Soldier” is a “Carol of the Bells” with drum machines and a voice saying he told himself he wasn’t going to cry this year. And an unexpected shift into a weird shouty part at the end.
December 10, 2021 at 9:15 am | Posted in Crush Collision | Leave a comment
10:00 pm Jaga Jazzist ~ Spiral Era (Prins Thomas Remix)
10:05 pm Sev ~ Escape the Matrix
10:07 pm Brazilian Television ~ Give U Up
10:09 pm Tourist ~ So
10:12 pm Tycho ~ Easy
10:15 pm Blue Veil ~ Pleasure Culture
10:20 pm Caterina Barbieri/Carlo Maria ~ Fantas Resynthesized for 808 and 202
10:23 pm Lusine ~ Turn Back
10:27 pm Max Cooper ~ Void
10:32 pm Vladislav Delay ~ Huone
10:39 pm ASOK ~ 30 Hours
10:44 pm Moiré ~ Madgan
10:48 pm Manik ~ Los Angeles Dub
10:54 pm Ciggy De La Noche ~ Moroccan Mint Infusion
10:59 pm SAUL feat. Poppy Ajudha ~ Earth & Rain
11:04 pm Thundercat feat. Ty Dolla $ign and Lil B ~ Fair Chance (Floating Points Remix)
11:08 pm Classixx ~ Love Me No More (Extended)
11:12 pm Andrew Red Hand ~ There Is Hope
11:17 pm Four Tet ~ Angel Echoes (127 Version)
11:20 pm Freiland ~ Blau
11:25 pm Ricardo Villalobos ~ Ichso
11:31 pm Bodyjack ~ The Streisand Effect (Fiedel Remix)
11:36 pm Amandra ~ Perlen Cha Cha
11:40 pm Moody Boyz ~ Fight Back
11:43 pm Spooky ~ Concussion
11:47 pm Thomas Fehlmann ~ Snake Salvador
11:49 pm Kelly Lee Owens ~ Melt!
11:51 pm Nocturnal Sunshine ~ Heroes
11:55 pm BRONSON ~ KEEP MOVING (HAAi Remix)
11:58 pm VONDA7 x Elisa Bee ~ Distant Reality
December 7, 2021 at 8:55 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Kiln: Tungsten
A long-running Michigan group that’s been part of the Ghostly International family since the early 2000s, Kiln sporadically surface every so often with an indescribable type of live band IDM which feels scientific yet loose and jammy.
This EP is basically additional material from the sessions that produced last year’s
Astral Welder full-length, and it works on its own accord. “North Bar Lake” is a surprising country venture, with steel guitars caressing its fluid machine rhythm. “Cat Paw Spiritual” gently sneaks through a back alley at night, keeping its cool while wading through trash and grime. “Argon Pedestrian” seems brighter and more joyous at first, but it also seems to crawl through sludge for a moment, only to shine bright when an acoustic guitar comes in. Finally, “Pinyon” is a short violin-based piece which rocks gently on the ocean waves as we drift out to sea.
December 5, 2021 at 5:53 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
x.nte + Elevation: Angel 933
Atlanta duo x.nte + Elevation released a collaborative album called
Angel 93 on Cock Rock Disco 4 years ago, and
its successor now appears courtesy of Suzi Analogue’s Never Normal Records. Released in conjunction with an RPG game (according to the Bandcamp blurb),
Angel 933 is another massive block of glitch-infested breakcore that never hesitates to push the decibels far in the red and make the breakbeats as sudden, choppy, and explosive as possible. Some of the newer breakcore folks are favoring shiny, atmospheric d’n’b textures and rave throwbacks, or endless anime samples, but this is more deconstructed art school noise jungle, with some more rolling-out passages, but lots of chaotic interruption and non-linearity. But it’s not entirely that way, either. There’s glimpses of beauty scattered throughout. Like the last track, which has a part featuring layers of pianos twinkling throughout its trash-compacted breaks and nu-metal-ish vocals. It’s hard to really name a favorite track here, since it’s all amazing, although the appearances from NO EYES are always welcome, and “haigan newboss anthem” shreds particularly hard.
December 5, 2021 at 4:48 pm | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment
2:00 am Dave Graw (local) ~ Perihelion (Apsis Warning Signs) ~ Abandon Hope (new) ~ Syncro System ~ 2021
2:04 am Bitchin Bajas ~ Opus In Springtime ~ Switched On Ra (new) ~ Drag City ~ 2021
2:09 am Syntoma ~ No Me Puedo Controlar ~ Back Up: Mexican Tecno Pop 1980-1989 ~ Dark Entries ~ 1983
2:14 am Robert Görl & DAF ~ Gedanken Lesen ~ Nur Noch Einer (new) ~ Grönland Records ~ 2021
2:17 am Bush Tetras ~ You Can’t Be Funky ~ Rhythm & Paranoia: the Best of Bush Tetras ~ Wharf Cat ~ 1981
2:19 am Soccer96 feat. Nuha Ruby Ra ~ Dopamine ~ Dopamine (new) ~ Moshi Moshi ~ 2021
2:23 am E.Vax ~ Pretty Good ~ E.Vax (new) ~ Because Music ~ 2021
2:27 am Model Home ~ Body Power ~ both feet en th infinite (new) ~ Don Giovanni ~ 2021
2:33 am Steve Roach ~ Spiral of Strength ~ Tomorrow ~ Projekt ~ 2020
2:41 am Your Old Droog feat. Lil Ugly Mane and billy woods ~ Meteor Man ~ Space Bar (new) ~ Mongoloid Banks ~ 2021
2:45 am Sherelle ~ Jungle Teknah ~ Fabric Presents Sherelle (new) ~ Fabric ~ 2021
2:49 am Skee Mask ~ Testo BC Mashup ~ Pool (new) ~ Ilian Tape ~ 2021
2:56 am Christoph De Babalon ~ Cool Priest ~ 044 (Hilf Dir Selbst!) (new) ~ AD 93 ~ 2021
3:01 am Dev/Null ~ Breath ~ Microjunglizm (new) ~ Evar Records ~ 2021
3:04 am Ouri ~ High & Choking, Pt. 1 ~ Frame of a Fauna (new) ~ Lighter Than Air ~ 2021
3:07 am Eris Drew ~ Loving Clav ~ Quivering In Time (new) ~ T4T LUV NRG ~ 2021
3:14 am Makaya McCraven ~ Coppin’ the Haven ~ Deciphering the Message (new) ~ Blue Note ~ 2021
3:17 am Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad w/ Brian Jackson ~ Young Muhammad ~ Jazz Is Dead 8 (new) ~ Jazz Is Dead ~ 2021
3:20 am Henry Franklin ~ Plastic Creek Stomp ~ The Skipper ~ Black Jazz ~ 1972
3:24 am Lee Morgan ~ Speedball (7/10/70, Set One) ~ The Complete Live at the Lighthouse ~ Blue Note ~ 1970
3:29 am Blush To The Snow ~ Blush To The Snow ~ Blush To The Snow ~ Not Yet Remembered ~ 2020
3:34 am Aesop Rock x Blockhead ~ Oh Fudge ~ Garbology (new) ~ Rhymesayers ~ 2021
3:37 am Don Zilla ~ Buziba ~ Ekizikiza Mubwengula (new) ~ Hakuna Kulala ~ 2021
3:40 am Zvrra ~ Inside ~ Bizzaroland (new) ~ Avian ~ 2021
3:43 am Embryo ~ Yu Mala ~ Auf Auf (new) ~ Madlib Invazion ~ 2021
3:47 am Nailah Hunter ~ Sadko ~ @0 (new) ~ Ahead of Our Time ~ 2021
3:51 am Gerycz/Powers/Rolin ~ June ~ Lamplighter (new) ~ American Dreams ~ 2021
3:54 am Dan Munkus with Tommy White ~ A Once Lonely Man ~ The Edge of the High Trace (new) ~ self-released ~ 2021
December 4, 2021 at 11:10 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Dave Graw: Abandon Hope LP
Dave Graw has been active within the Detroit music scene for decades, having fronted several punk, hardcore, and emo bands since the ’90s. He also played on some of The Armed’s early releases. His recent solo music is far away from all of that, embracing synths, softer textures, and more meditative perspectives. Having previously released a double CD on his own Aninterval imprint, a digital single on breakcore label Low Res, and a limited LP on Syncro System, he returns to that label with
this tightly focused record of expansive instrumentals. Mostly recorded by himself in his plant-filled home studio, along with bass guitar from Seattle-based Josh Machniak, the album reminds me of labelmate Hydropark, but with a far more smoothed-out take on Krautrock-inspired songcraft than that group. Some songs here have hypnotic rhythms, but there’s also more intimate, weightless pieces like “A Sea of Interfering Signals”, which features thumb pianos, melodic chimes, and rushing sea water. Even the more driving songs, like “To The Health of the Wolf”, lift off the ground and drift easily rather than race furiously. The glowing “I May Have Been Swallowed, But I Refuse to Be Eaten” begins the second side, with an insistent synth line wriggling its way through space, and then “High Neighbors” is a crystalline reflection which gradually gains a swirling sequence and an uplifting rhythm. “With Friends” mingles lightly buzzing guitars and synths with thumb pianos which get swept into reverse at one point. “Perihelion (Apsis Warning Signs)” blends the ethereal with the physical, as a steady, shaker-driven rhythm surfaces front and center while cloudy synths flicker and billow, with one particular note sequence lingering like a memory that’s been halg-forgotten but won’t totally fade away.
December 3, 2021 at 12:31 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Dan Munkus: The Edge of the High Trace
by Peekskill, New York-based composer Dan Munkus is a set of improvisation-based instrumentals dedicated to the memory of his late father, who unexpectedly passed away five years ago. The opening title track (the name of which came to Munkus in a dream, and he has no clue what the phrase means) is a 10-minute slow trek with mournful violin playing by Heather Sommerlad, as well as swarms of guitar feedback and steady, muscular drums carving a path through a darkened landscape. It’s undoubtedly informed by tragedy and feels like a procession of grief, but it’s still pressing onward, determined not to get bogged down by harsh memories. “The End of the High Trace” starts out with more of a moonlit glow, eventually developing guitar melodies which shimmer like northern lights, and it feels like encountering some fantastic visions while venturing into a remote area, far from the sight of any other humans. “Eighty-Four Today” is a solemn piano requiem, which gets shaded with guitar buzz later on, and then ends with a brief melody which suggests a moment of clarity. “Wooden Nickels” is a feast of disturbing yet fascinating noise textures and churning rhythms, snapping into focus when a beat emerges near the end. “A Once Lonely Man” features guest guitarist Tommy White, who adds creative textures as well as ripping solos, and it just blazes once the drums come in. So much feeling to this album.
December 2, 2021 at 6:23 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Gerycz/Powers/Rolin: Lamplighter
Three Ohio-based musicians make up this trio, and their
second album together is a gorgeous set of expansive, mostly acoustic improvisations. Jen Powers’ hammered dulcimer is what stands out the most to these ears, adding some fascinating textures to the mixture, with Jayson Gerycz’s rollicking, scattering drums and Matthew Rolin’s earthy guitars additionally carrying the pieces through vast, open, light-drenched fields. “Rotations” launches the album with ecstatic yet sprawled-out drumming and thick blankets of dulcimer and guitar, creating a truly original sound that’s just full of joy. The title track is the album’s most abstract moment, with a slower drift and some scraping and feedback tones. “June” is a much more welcoming, down-home tune, it just feels like a warm embrace from someone you’ve known a long time who truly cares about you. “Jars of Glass”, the album’s 15-minute finale, is a bit more tightly coiled and almost bluegrassy at the beginning, but after the bumpy-trail drumming disappears, it all floats towards a less constrained space, gradually ending up with controlled waves of electric feedback, and finally ending with a flurry of unconstrained splatter-drumming and noisy guitar wreckage.
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