July 23, 2017 at 8:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Landing: Taeppe EP
Landing toured recently, but I had to miss their stop at UFO Factory because I was doing radio that night. At the very least, I can review their new EP. It’s called
Taeppe, which looks like a play on “tape”, and while it is available on cassette, the title is actually Danish for blanket, and it’s it’s a suitably fuzzy, comforting mass of sound. “Page After Page” takes up the first side, and it seems to transform into a different song once the drums join the rustling guitars and billowing synths halfway through. “Tape” is a bit more ethereal, with soft vocals floating over the wistful guitar melodies. “Together” is more of a jangling (but spacey) indie rock song, bringing the elements of the group’s sound into a catchy, delightful tune.
July 23, 2017 at 8:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Metria: Excession 12″ EP
This is the audio from a live set which took place in late 2011 in an unheated space somewhere in Detroit. I was actually at this show, and while it was super cold and uncomfortable, the music was fantastic, and unfortunately seemed like one of the final relatively big moments in the Detroit breakcore scene. At least from what I’ve seen since I moved to Michigan in 2009. Anyway, this is 20 continuous minutes of steady, lurching industrial beats and blown-out samples, which eventually get faster and more hammering. And then even more so. It never releases or backs down, it just keeps building up and getting more intense until it crashes into the wall at the end.
July 23, 2017 at 7:46 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Canada Effervescent: Crystalline tape
Denis Tremblay’s first Not Not Fun release is richly textured new age which starts out somewhat in the Laraaji/Alice Coltrane orbit, due to its harp-like sounds, but then it progresses into more liquid, cascading synth tones, as well as field recordings. Obviously this is the entire point, but this is really relaxing, healing music. But even with that description, it seems a bit more “other” than standard new age revival. None of the tracks sound alike, and they range from brief interludes to the 10-minute cyber-rainforest which ends the album.
July 23, 2017 at 7:06 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Christoph De Babalon: Grim Zenith 12″ EP
The man behind DHR’s all-time greatest album is still putting out powerful music, long after his contemporaries have faded from relevance or left this planet. This isn’t quite as unrelentingly bleak or heavy as his ’90s work, and definitely not as lo-fi. High quality sound design, with choppy drums which don’t settle into predictable patterns, and churning, vibrating bass. The other atmospheric elements don’t just float by or drone, they’re central to the compositions. There’s also a crucial element of space, so that the bass and drums hit hard and nothing overcrowds anything else. “Luxury of Sadness” has eerie strings and jazzy drum breaks, maybe coming close to “doomjazz” (I’m not 100% certain what that really is, if it is a thing at all), and it seems to sum up everything about what he’s going for with this EP. Very impressive.
July 23, 2017 at 6:39 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Rick Weaver: The Secular Arm tape
Rick Weaver of Form a Log released this solo tape on Hausu Mountain recently, and it’s somewhere between a demented cartoon soundtrack and a really loony minimal synth album. I guess you could probably throw prog-rock in that list of descriptors as well. Lots of clattering drum machines, jovial melodies, and a short attention span approach to composition, especially the brief “Historical Music #1-4”, which seems to flip channels every 10 seconds. The second side switches between noisy guitar feedback and loungey crooning, ending with the dark, dreamy “Lie Detector”. Equally zany and suspenseful.
July 9, 2017 at 6:11 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Dead Man’s Chest: Throwing Shades 12″ EP
Not sure how I missed out on this guy until now, but this is KILLER ’95-style jungle. Atmospheric pads, super harsh, gritty breakbeats, slower hip-hop/ragga samples, and maximum headrush. I’m sure dedicated junglists can probably tell that these are new recordings rather than unearthed dubplates from back in the day, but it taps into that sound perfectly. Some might call this retro, then, but to me anything that sounds like this is always going to be relevant to my life. Looks like he has half a dozen records out before this one, all of which are probably hard to find for cheap by now. I’m hooked.
July 9, 2017 at 10:12 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Steve Coleman’s Natal Eclipse: Morphogenesis
Newest album from the composer credited with launching the M-Base movement, which also included the late, great Geri Allen. Very complex yet still grooving music which constantly twists into convoluted shapes, and blurs the line between improvisation and composition. No drums are present (just cymbals and other percussion on a few tracks), and it seems like they would just be in the way, but there is some sort of rhythmic structure to it. All of the musicians somehow seem to be following the same path, even as it keeps turning at sharp angles and tying knots. It risks sounding like something that might give you a headache while listening, but surprisingly, it doesn’t. It feels really natural and fluid. Highly recommended.
June 30, 2017 at 10:50 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Hills: Alive at Roadburn
Swedish psych explorers Hills (not to be confused with White Hills, who are far more prolific) present an album recorded at the infamous Roadburn festival, held every April in the Netherlands. All four tracks come within a minute or two of 15 minutes, and they don’t take long to launch into mystical heavy grooves. At times it sounds like there’s tamburas droning away along with the distorted guitars, and hints of desert melodies or rhythms. Also, while some of the group’s previous work was instrumental, this one has shamanistic vocals which seem possessed by a dark spirit (at least on the opening track “National Drone”). “Master Sleeps” has a very entrancing rhythm and ends up with some head-spinning patterns of echoed wah-wah guitar. At the end of the set, someone in the band remarks that they were supposed to play 6 songs but they only had time for 4, indicating how heavily engrossed the band are when they’re playing music.
June 30, 2017 at 8:47 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Duot & Andy Moor: Food LP
Spanish improv duo Duot meet up with the legendary guitarist Andy Moor (The Ex, Dog Faced Hermans) for this bracing set. Tracks typically start off quiet, but get jagged and abrasive. Tumbling drums, serrated guitar, wheezing sax. “Arrebato” is probably the most immediate piece. “It’s Your Business” starts off sounding kinda like a mutated version of the “Blister in the Sun” riff. “Gudi” feels like being crushed against the pavement while rapid wolves are hissing at you (but somehow not biting you).
June 18, 2017 at 1:06 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Jib Kidder: New Works For Realistic Mixer
Following his poppiest album (2015’s
Teaspoon To The Ocean), former WCBN DJ Jib Kidder released possibly his most experimental album. Instead of dense sample collages or trippy pop songs, this one was made entirely with a mixer and a drum machine. The cryptic, nonsensical track titles point to this being his IDM album, and the songs are a bit glitchy and noisy, filled with jagged, piercing tones and dripping beats. Lots of rusty, metallic feedback twisted into strange shapes. In a weird way, this was more accessible than I expected, but it’s not exactly melodic and the beats are far too abstract to dance to. Somehow the album’s weirdest moment is when a sample of a baby’s voice swoops in during the second to last track. It seems to be a perfect example of the humanity of this album, even though it appears cold and robotic.
Jib Kidder: Pay 2 Play
is entirely different, and a return to sample-based psych-pop. This contains some of his most bizarre, densely piled-on sample collage work yet, along with sly, strange songwriting. The album comes with a thick booklet containing stories and surrealist drawings as well as the songs’ lyrics. Just in the first few songs, we hear samples of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, doomsday cult speaking-in-tongues, pan flutes, country guitar, IM notifications, etc. I think I heard the coughing from “Sweet Leaf” somewhere in there too (possibly in reference to a certain WCBN PSA?). “Field of Dreams” is an easygoing groover based on a bagpipe sample. The second half of the album seems to be devoid of samples, however, and it goes into more of a soft rock mode, but in a somewhat strange way. “Fortune Presents Gifts” is a Dead Can Dance cover, and a faithful rendition of Tori Amos’ “Cornflake Girl” appears later, with backup vocals during the chorus that I thought were a sample of Tori herself at first.
« Previous Page —
Next Page »
The Answer Is In The Beat 