XV: On the Creekbeds on the Thrones LP (Ginkgo Records, 2023)

April 1, 2023 at 10:20 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

XV: On the Creekbeds on the Thrones LP

Free punk trio XV sound like a secret club that has its own codes and customs — rules don’t apply here. All of its recordings and performances are a glimpse into a strange alternate subset of reality, so it might take several listens or lots of reflection to adjust and make sense of it. Even still, there’s a lot of direct, isolated moments that say something as raw and plainly as possible, and it’s hard not to take notice of them. “Still Interested” is a vibey intro with Emily Roll’s echo-drenched vocals giving a mock dialogue attempting to explain that lack of current activity and socialization doesn’t mean lack of interest. Roll’s work as Haunted has touched on themes like this before, and I know I need to be more considerate when it feels like my friends don’t want to talk to me or hang out anymore. There’s other deeper, more contemplative tracks here, like “The Art”, but then others seem more about coming up with a clever or ear-catching idea and just going with it, like “Tasmanian Angels”. “Fresh Lettuce” starts off as a groove-driven appreciation of clean produce, then takes off as more echo and distortion covers everything and it becomes an excited, swooping dub-punk chant. “No Touching” is a more bassline-driven indie rock tune that repeats the statement “mornings are hard”. “Funkyconomy” is like no wave Shaggs, with a jagged bassline, wailing sax, crashing drums, and the repeated phrase “I wanna live in a funkyconomy” all united in their aggressive drive, but not aligned rhythmically. After “Pen” (“I need a pen to write things down”), the album returns to spoken word songs with the darker, Claire Cirocco-voiced “Cards” and then an appreciation for “Fruit” (especially apples) which actually seems to be more about telling someone to stop talking. “I Won’t Tell” is a loose burner which repeats its title (reinforcing the vibe of secrecy this band gives off), getting lost in a daze before bursting into noisy howling before the tape suddenly shuts off.

Show #667 – 4/1/23

April 1, 2023 at 2:33 am | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment

12:02 AM Balance ~ MRA ~ Conjure ~ Two Rooms ~ 2022
12:07 AM Purple Decades ~ Everthus the Ether ~ Journey Test ~ Beacon Sound ~ 2023
12:10 AM Härte 10 ~ Cosmos Annie ~ Echo Neuklang (Neo-Kraut-Sounds 1981 – 2023) ~ Bureau B ~ 1983
12:15 AM DEBBY FRIDAY ~ HEARTBREAKERRR ~ GOOD LUCK ~ Sub Pop Records ~ 2023
12:18 AM Kelela ~ Enough for Love ~ Raven ~ Warp Records ~ 2023
12:22 AM Witness K ~ Scream Across The Low Fence ~ Witness K ~ Ever/Never ~ 2023
12:26 AM Rasmus Birk ~ Head and Breakfast ~ Cult of Rasmus ~ Black Cottage ~ 2023
12:29 AM bagel fanclub ~ Sine Wave Assembly ~ How Are Your Cars Driving? ~ Maulcat Records ~ 2023
12:31 AM Pugilist & Tamen ~ Lithium (Dwarde & Tim Reaper Remix) ~ Lithium ~ DEXT ~ 2023
12:37 AM Dancefloor Classics [aka Vladislav Delay] ~ Please Come Out ~ Dancefloor Classics Vol. 1 ~ Rajaton ~ 2023
12:39 AM Fire-Toolz ~ I Couldn’t Have Been BoRn At ThE wRoNg TiMe Because I Was Never Even Born LOL! ~ I am upset because I see something that is not there. ~ Hausu Mountain ~ 2023
12:43 AM Trees Speak ~ Machines Speak ~ Mind Maze (digital edition) ~ Soul Jazz Records ~ 2023
12:46 AM on4word ~ Videotape ~ In Rainbow Roads ~ Bandcamp ~ 2023
12:51 AM Alan Braxe & Fred Falke ~ Rubicon ~ The Upper Cuts (2023 Edition) ~ Smugglers Way ~ 2004
1:00 AM Loscil & Lawrence English ~ Violet ~ Colours of Air ~ kranky ~ 2023
1:06 AM The Reds, Pinks and Purples ~ Life in the Void ~ The Town That Cursed Your Name ~ Tough Love Records/Slumberland ~ 2023
1:09 AM Tyvek ~ 9 Bucks ~ Blunt Instrumentals ~ Ginkgo ~ 2009
1:11 AM XV ~ Funkyconomy + Pen ~ On the Creekbeds on the Thrones ~ Ginkgo ~ 2023
1:14 AM Macula Dog ~ Go Green ~ Orange 2 ~ Wharf Cat Records ~ 2022
1:18 AM w.ravenveer ~ bees ~ primal voices and electronics volume 1 ~ Radical Documents ~ 2023
1:22 AM Joel Vandroogenbroeck ~ New Wave Rock ~ Far View ~ Drag City Records ~ 1987
1:24 AM Chapterhouse ~ Mesmerise ~ Cherry Stars Collide: Dream Pop, Shoegaze & Ethereal Rock 1986-1995 ~ Cherry Red ~ 1991
1:28 AM Benoît Pioulard ~ 12 Tet ~ Eidetic ~ Morr Music ~ 2023
1:30 AM The OO-Ray ~ Outside ~ Generate ~ Audiobulb Records ~ 2023
1:35 AM Illusion of Safety ~ Children of the Fear of Light ~ Organ Choir ~ Drone No Part Of It ~ 2023
1:42 AM Model/Actriz ~ Amaranth ~ Dogsbody ~ True Panther ~ 2023
1:45 AM Gerald Cleaver, Brandon Lopez, Hprizm ~ GLP1 ~ In the Wilderness ~ Positive Elevation/577 Records ~ 2023
1:48 AM B. Cool-Aid ~ Cnt Go Back ( Tell Me ) [feat. Liv.e, Butcher Brown, Jimetta Rose, V.C.R & Maurice II] ~ Leather Blvd. ~ Lex Records ~ 2023
1:53 AM Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra ~ Dream Sleeper ~ Lightning Dreamers ~ International Anthem ~ 2023

bagel fanclub: how are your cars driving? (Maulcat, 2023)

March 31, 2023 at 6:30 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

bagel fanclub: how are your cars driving?

This recent Bandcamp find is about as breezy and joyous as breakcore gets while still being messy and cathartic and destructive. The easiest comparison I can think of is Datach’i circa Wearealwayswellthankyou, and this delivers that sort of late ’90s drill’n’bass flavor through a more modern internet filter. Fans of Blipvert and Wolff Parkinson White will be into this, and probably stuff like Nanoray too, but this is nothing at all like atmospheric d’n’b anime-core. This is a self-driving car that goes fast enough to outrun the cops every time, causes a whirlwind of fiery destruction, and magically keeps the passenger safe and snug. It’s cutesy chiptune IDM, bulldozing power noise, disruptive gabber/speedcore, and hyperspeed cartoon music all at once. Five Star Hotel mastered this, and it’s on the same level of intensely hyped-up fury. Magnificent, one of the highlights of the first quarter of 2023.

Balance: Conjure (Two Rooms, 2022)

March 30, 2023 at 9:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Balance: Conjure

Pianist Michael Malis and saxophonist Marcus Elliot developed and recorded these pieces together in the first month of 2020, and the Trinosophes-associated Two Rooms Records released it late last year. Alternating between Malis and Elliot compositions before ending with a Lawrence Williams piece, the album encompasses several different moods, with the musicians sometimes playing harmoniously, and other times seeming more confrontational. Two significant guest artists push the musicians even further. The opening title track features the brick-hard poetry of Chace Morris, who returns on the more patient but no less stern “Serpent’s Serpent”. The other guest is master drummer Gerald Cleaver, who helps steer the ambitious, fractured “MRA” through its various movements, and helps give the exhilarating “Number Four” its swing. The remainder are just Elliot and Malis. Both of them follow angular paths during “Leap Year”, but occasionally one takes off and flies. Malis drives the train during “9-24”, but both players are in perfect formation. The longest piece, “Possible Futures”, hangs on Malis’ extended notes, which sometimes hang weightless, which Elliot contrasts by switching to bass clarinet. At times it’s easy to think there’s a deep, bowed string instrument being played. Both the artist and album couldn’t have been more accurately named.

Rasmus Birk: Cult of Rasmus (Black Cottage, 2023)

March 25, 2023 at 1:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Rasmus Birk: Cult of Rasmus

Affiliated with Applesauce Tears and Black Cottage Records, Rasmus Birk is an Atlanta-based cut-and-paste electronic group, and apparently some sort of cult. They seem to prefer pinching samples from old films, maybe even educational ones, so their music has this out-of-time quality. “This Is Your Focus Leader” is a celebratory opener filled with gleeful horns and guitar riffs. “Sop the Droplet” unexpectedly begins with gospel pianos, then eventually adds slap bass and distorted, smeared beats. “Sunshine Casual” is a gorgeous chillout track, with bird chirps and sighing vocals complementing the dreamy beats. “Wolfie” does in fact featuring a wolf howling, starting out with a fun, freewheeling first half and then spacing out for the second. “Babette Becomes a Burden” has an ear-catching sample (“I said, I’m not hard to look at!”) and swells of dubby horns. “Down and Baroque” has a curious combination of black-and-white old movie samples and slow, squishy beats. “Head and Breakfast” seems to try its hardest to play around with your head, chopping up a sample about playing a while after supper and before bed over queasy synths. “Creeping Jenny” is a long, multi-part journey involving a mysterious long distance call, and it has a heart-warming ending. “Her Name Was Funky Bundle” is based around a minor conflict between a couple; the repeated “I’m no freak!” sample near the end is what gets me. “Confetti and Meet Halls” starts out uncertain, then loses itself at the disco. Finally, “The Feedback Rhythm” moves sideways with erratic riffs and nervous synth sequences.

Show #666 – 3/25/23

March 25, 2023 at 11:53 am | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment

12:01 AM Kelela ~ Sorbet ~ Raven ~ Warp Records ~ 2023
12:07 AM DEBBY FRIDAY ~ I GOT IT (feat. Uñas) ~ GOOD LUCK ~ Sub Pop Records ~ 2023
12:10 AM Rasmus Birk ~ Sop the Droplet ~ Cult of Rasmus ~ Black Cottage ~ 2023
12:14 AM Genevieve Artadi ~ Plate ~ Forever Forever ~ Brainfeeder ~ 2023
12:17 AM Shygirl + Björk ~ Woe (I See It From Your Side) ~ single ~ Because ~ 2023
12:21 AM Kosaya Gora ~ Dust ~ Kosogor ~ 2MR ~ 2023
12:23 AM Maral ~ Avaz-e-Del ~ Ground Groove ~ Leaving Records ~ 2022
12:26 AM Yves Tumor ~ Purified by the Fire ~ Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) ~ Warp Records ~ 2023
12:29 AM babybaby_explores ~ Untitled ~ Food Near Me, Weather Tomorrow ~ No Gold ~ 2023
12:31 AM Prince Jammy ~ Martian Encounter ~ Destroys the Invaders ~ Greensleeves Records ~ 1982
12:35 AM Evil Robot Ted ~ Stinger (Remix) ~ Doubled Edged Lord ~ Brokecore ~ 2023
12:38 AM Settle Down ~ No Shoes on the Carpet ~ Sniper ~ E-Beamz ~ 2023
12:42 AM Venus Ex Machina ~ Mirror ~ Doxa ~ AD 93 ~ 2022
12:45 AM Christian McBride’s New Jawn ~ The Good Life ~ Prime ~ Brother Mister Productions ~ 2023
12:53 AM En Attendant Ana ~ Wonder ~ Principia ~ Trouble In Mind Records ~ 2023
12:59 AM Scientist ~ Quasar ~ Scientist Meets The Space Invaders ~ Greensleeves ~ 1981
1:02 AM King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard ~ The Dripping Tap ~ Live at Red Rocks ’22 ~ KGLW ~ 2023
1:17 AM Gregory Kramer ~ Monologue (1977) ~ Veils of Transformation 1972-1980 ~ Important Records ~ 2023
1:24 AM Toada ~ Agridoce ~ Acalenta ~ plūma ~ 2023
1:28 AM Kate NV ~ mi (we) ~ WOW ~ RVNG Intl. ~ 2023
1:33 AM Joy Guidry ~ Almost There ~ single ~ Whited Sepulchre Records ~ 2023
1:35 AM Faust ~ Tête-à-Tête im Schredder ~ Momentaufnahme II ~ Bureau B ~ ’70s
1:38 AM Russ Young ~ A Listening Voice ~ Cloak ~ Audiobulb Records ~ 2023
1:42 AM Hobert Europe ~ Ultra (recorded live at Ultra Mega Awesome Extreme May 30th 2005) ~ Ultra 3″ cd-r ~ Mode of Proof ~ 2005

Crush Collision 3/23/23

March 24, 2023 at 10:45 am | Posted in Crush Collision | Leave a comment

10:00 PM DJ Black Low ~ Qhude (feat. Black R, K-Dalo & Frego) ~ Impumelelo ~ Awesome Tapes From Africa ~ 2023
10:04 PM Vladislav Delay ~ Recovery Idea ~ Whistleblower (2022 Remaster) ~ Keplar ~ 2007
10:10 PM IUNA NIVA ~ Downfall ~ Uniös Organization V/A – EP ~ Solid Shape Records ~ 2019
10:14 PM Sofia Kourtesis ~ Madres ~ Madres – Single ~ Ninja Tune ~ 2023
10:18 PM Galcher Lustwerk ~ Enterprise ~ 100% Galcher ~ Ghostly International ~ 2013
10:20 PM Yansima ~ Tweede Cans ~ Tweede Cans – Single ~ R&S Records ~ 2020
10:25 PM Hannes Teichmann ~ Jäger ~ Unser : Eins ~ Festplatten ~ 2001
10:30 PM c4 ~ 64M ~ Black & White Era 5way #1 ~ Trashfuck ~ 2008
10:33 PM Yoshinori Hayashi ~ I ~ γ ~ Smalltown Supersound ~ 2019
10:39 PM Achingdrum ~ Just Wanna ~ Just Wanna – Single ~ Spirit Level ~ 2023
10:42 PM Echaskech ~ Loquence ~ Loquence – Single ~ VLSI Records ~ 2023
10:46 PM Erika ~ Star Line Down ~ Anevite Void ~ Interdimensional Transmissions ~ 2023
10:51 PM VRIL ~ Terraformink ~ Animist ~ Delsin ~ 2023
10:55 PM Insider ~ Something Flash ~ Something Flash – Single ~ R&S Records ~ 2023
10:59 PM The MFA ~ Freedom24 ~ Lights Out ~ Traum Schallplatten ~ 2023
11:03 PM Jam & Spoon ~ Stella’s Cry ~ Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 ~ R&S ~ 1993
11:07 PM Dave Clarke ~ Miles Away ~ Archive One ~ Deconstruction/Bush ~ 1996
11:11 PM Venus Ex Machina ~ Mirror ~ Doxa ~ AD 93 ~ 2022
11:13 PM Anti Patriot ~ World Citizen ~ Ideology – EP ~ Sonic Mind Records ~ 2020
11:18 PM Sergeant Frog ~ Profile Dance ~ Musik Music Musique 3.0: 1982 Synth Pop On The Air ~ Cherry Red Records ~ 1982
11:20 PM Overmono ~ Calling Out ~ Good Lies ~ XL Recordings ~ 2023
11:24 PM K Hand ~ Security ~ Detroit History, Pt. 1 ~ Tresor ~ 2001
11:28 PM Vladimir Dubyshkin ~ deaf artist ` Pornographic Novel – EP ~ trip recordings ~ 2020
11:31 PM Teste ~ The Wipe (3 A.M. Dub Remix) ~ Switch Records 1992-1997 ~ Switch Records ~ 1992
11:36 PM Violet ~ Hard ~ Heart/Break Hard/Core – EP ~ Naive ~ 2023
11:40 PM Butter Bullets ~ Sousou (Von Bikräv Remix) ~ 100% Bibi ~ Casual Gabberz Records ~ 2019
11:43 PM CYRK ~ Ahemait ~ Attack of the Blow Up Dolls – EP ~ Cultivated Electronics ~ 2023
11:47 PM CDR ~ Rave Until You Aho 148 ~ single ~ RDC Records ~ 2023
11:51 PM DJ Girl ~ Groover ~ Hellworld ~ Planet Mu ~ 2023
11:56 PM Coco Bryce ~ Shadow Weaver ~ Campari / Shadow Weaver ~ Myor ~ 2020

Illusion of Safety: Organ Choir Drone (No Part Of It, 2023)

March 19, 2023 at 1:29 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Illusion of Safety: Organ Choir Drone

Organ Choir Drone is edited down from hours of material recorded by Daniel Burke, including his first Eurorack modular synthesizers recordings, used for a performance with Shen Wei Dance Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. “Children of the Fear and Light” is where to start if you’re interested in hearing modular synths at their gnarliest, and it matches its title with swarming movements that bring to mind a giant radioactive insect monster from an old sci-fi movie, plus there’s the faint sound of chattering children near the end. “Organic Pistons” seems to be where the album title comes from, as it’s just a really beautiful, almost sacred-sounding organ piece. “Waste of Civilization” contains piercing, high-pitched frequencies throughout much of it, as well as scrambled masses of radio-transmitted voices, but much of the other synth work is more peaceful, so it ends up somewhere between serenity and confusion. “Black Helicopters” appropriately starts out with violently shredding/chopping distortion, then flows through various amounts of disorienting buzzing and droning, as well as gentler guitar manipulations that subtly trick the mind. “Groundswell Horns” is the longest track, at 19 minutes, and it starts out with some more higher frequencies and desolate wandering. Some slight glitching, rustling, and clicking emerges, making it feel like things are barely holding together and on the verge of collapse. The rest of the piece is a very slow, gradual build, bubbling and shifting until everything starts moving faster and more forcefully, drilling into the core at the very end. Once that’s achieved, there’s little else that can be done, so the brief finale “Blackout” is two minutes of a faint, sickly gnawing feeling until everything expires.

Death Factory: Vol. 3 (No Part Of It, 2023)

March 18, 2023 at 2:58 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Death Factory: Vol. 3

This CD contains four lengthy pieces by Chicago’s Michael Krause from a decade or two ago. This is bludgeoning death industrial that you just stare into the face of as it slowly consumes you. Opener “Manifestation of Fear (3rd Version)” is truly mesmerizing, the distortion just permeates your consciousness and the slow thudding fully draws you in. Then it turns into this sort of bleary horror carnival spectacle, and ends with a demonic jumpscare. “Feasting on Fear” is more of a cinematic junkyard soundscape that gets more scorched as it goes on. “…More Disturbing American Foreign Policies” applies some pretty mind-frying effects to a looped sample about Cambodia, presumably from a documentary or news broadcast. Finally, “Prophecy” is a massive, nearly half hour swarm that gets into some harsher, more piercing tones than the other pieces, but spaces out its more overwhelming moments.

Show #665 – 3/18/23

March 18, 2023 at 9:30 am | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment

12:00 AM Infinite River ~ Track 3 ~ Prequel ~ Badman ~ 2023
12:06 AM Kelela ~ Holier ~ Raven ~ Warp Records ~ 2023
12:10 AM Arlo Parks ~ Impurities ~ My Soft Machine ~ Transgressive ~2023
12:13 AM Liv.e ~ A Slumber Party‽ ~ Girl In The Half Pearl ~ In Real Life Music ~ 2023
12:15 AM Nicolette ~ All Day (DJ Kicks) ~ DJ-Kicks: Nicolette ~ !K7 ~ 1997
12:20 AM Nia Archives ~ Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall ~ Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall ~ HIJINXX/Island ~ 2023
12:22 AM 4hero ~ Talk Around Town ~ Parallel Universe ~ Reinforced Records ~ 1994
12:27 AM A Guy Called Gerald ~ Cyberjazz ~ Black Secret Technology ~ Juice Box ~ 1995
12:32 AM Subjects ~ We Run It ~ No Other Way / We Run It ~ Deep Jungle Records ~ 2023
12:39 AM DJ Girl ~ When U Touch Me (feat. Lighght) ~ Hellworld ~ Planet Mu ~ 2023
12:43 AM Erika ~ Crystal Circuits ~ Anevite Void ~ Interdimensional Transmissions ~ 2023
12:50 AM DJ Black Low ~ Bo Mbali Leboh Palesa (feat. Dea Rebbedy) ~ Impumelelo ~ Awesome Tapes From Africa ~ 2023
12:55 AM A Positive Life ~ The Calling ~ Synaesthetic ~ Beyond ~ 1994
1:01 AM Illusion of Safety ~ Ripped Continuum ~ Organ Choir ~ Drone No Part Of It ~ 2023
1:06 AM Lonnie Holley ~ Mount Meigs ~ Oh Me Oh My ~ Jagjaguwar ~ 2023
1:10 AM Nabihah Iqbal ~ This World Couldn’t See Us ~ DREAMER ~ Ninja Tune ~ 2023
1:14 AM The Free Music ~ Al Qalb Mrayef ~ The Free Music (Part 1) ~ HABIBI Funk Records ~ 1976
1:18 AM Heather Trost ~ Frog and Toad are Friends ~ Desert Flowers ~ Ba Da Bing! ~ 2022
1:21 AM Lieutenant Pigeon ~ Home on the Rage ~ The Decca Years ~ 7Ts ~ 2023
1:23 AM Zoo Boutique ~ Happy Families ~ Musik Music Musique 3.0: 1982 Synth Pop On The Air ~ Cherry Red Records ~ 1982
1:26 AM They Might Be Giants ~ Become a Robot ~ Then: The Earlier Years ~ Restless ~ 1985
1:27 AM Fever Ray ~ Tapping Fingers ~ Radical Romantics ~ Mute ~ 2023
1:32 AM Death Factory – Manifestation of Fear (3rd Version) ~ Vol. 3 ~ NO PART OF IT ~ 2023
1:47 AM SILENT FLOOR ~ Aka Iro ~ Switch Records: Singles 1992-1997 ~ SWITCH RECORDS ~ 1992
1:52 AM Woob ~ Wuub ~ Woob 1194 (21st Century Remaster) ~ Bandcamp ~ 1994

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