Really cool psych-dub-drone from Leighton Craig, who released an album on Room40 a few years ago. Gorgeous echo-chamber drone with distorted organs and spacey horns. I’m sick right now and this is definitely hitting the spot. Some of the tracks are instrumental, but most of them feature ethereal vocals, and some sort of hypnotic rhythm. “Unchanging Light” even has Suicide/Spacemen 3-like organ chords. “Upwelling” uses blipping drum machines not as a guiding rhythm, but spacing the sounds out slowly. “Starlight On The Sea” doesn’t have beats, but it uses chimes over a somewhat bouncy rhythm. “Window” ends the album with 9 minutes of sad keyboards, tape hiss, horns and vocals. Really gorgeous, I’m enjoying this one a lot.
Grant Evans is half of Quiet Evenings (with his wife Rachel Evans, AKA Motion Sickness Of Time Travel) and he records solo material under the name Nova Scotian Arms, but lately he seems to have been using his own name. This is a recent tape on an Australian label, and it does a sort of swirling psych-drone thing, with (on the first side, “House Of Illusions”) a constantly revolving flange effect tying together several strands of electrified organ drone. It erupts into shattering noise around the 10 minute mark, smooths out a bit, and then loops sheets of feedback, all while using the same revolving flange effect. The second side (“Subterfuge”) is a bit calmer, but still has several subtle layers of feedback and static over a contemplative keyboard drone. Around the second half, the noises slowly start to become more aggressive and dismantle the calm drone, and the last 5 minutes or so are more noisy (but not quite harsh) with some elements of the calmer drone flaring up.
Debut 7″ from abstract Chicago duo. “Trust And Order” walks the line between poppy Sonic Youth and zombified psych-rock. Drums shift from a snare-heavy cadence to cymbal-crazy bashing, and the vocals tend to stare in a straight line. The lead guitar plucks out a simple, memorable riff, while a mess of feedback swells underneath. Not bad, but the B-side catches my ear more. “The Time I Play With My Puppy” starts out with some rambling geezer with effects on his voice talking about playing with his puppy, with jittery guitar and shaker. The guitar bursts into this noisy, fractured part, then you hear the rambling geezer for a few more seconds, and you think you’re going to hear more of him, but the music strips down to just the guitar strumming, and then all sorts of feedback noises are gradually layered, totally derailing the song from where you thought the song was going to go. Eventually it’s just feedback noise, with some scrambled, unintelligible radio voices buried underneath, and then the record ends cold. Pretty bizarre, maybe kind of creepy, and more than a bit fascinating.
3:01 AM infinity window ~ skull theft ~ artificial midnight ~ arbor
3:12 AM pulse emitter ~ photosynthesis ~ split 2lp w/ date palms, expo 70 & faceplant ~ immune
3:20 AM grant evans ~ subterfuge ~ jewels from the house of worms ~ a guide to saints
3:31 AM old komm ~ ventspils movement 2 ~ ventspils ~ discrepant
3:43 AM the designated mourner ~ konrad ~ clarinet quartets 7″ ~ fedora corpse
3:45 AM akio suzuki + lawrence english ~ eucalyptus signata ~ boombana echoes ~ winds measure recordings
3:50 AM primitive motion ~ upwelling ~ two ellipses ~ a guide to saints
3:54 AM justin walter ~ red and brown leaves ~ dark matter ~ life like
4:01 AM dreissk ~ arc ~ edge_horizon ~ n5MD
4:05 AM white poppy ~ mirage man ~ 7″ ~ kingfisher bluez
4:09 AM the hecks ~ the time i play with my puppy ~ 7″ ~ moniker
4:13 AM the kandinsky effect ~ wk51 ~ synesthesia ~ cuneiform
4:17 AM bugskull ~ high steppin’ ii ~ communication ~ digitalis
4:21 AM dylan ettinger ~ tipoff ~ split 7″ w/ xander harris ~ moon glyph
4:24 AM weyes blood and the dark juices ~ candyboy ~ the outside room ~ not not fun
4:31 AM terrence dixon ~ 11th floor ~ from the far future pt. 2 ~ tresor
4:35 AM lydia lunch ~ burning skulls ~ retrovirus ~ ugEXPLODE
4:41 AM half japanese ~ i don’t want to have mono no more ~ 1/2 gentlemen / not beasts ~ t.e.c. tones
4:43 AM jad fair ~ casper the friendly ghost (and one other song) ~ live at sxsw 2013
4:45 AM patrick elkins & chelsea jordan ~ i only ever think once ~ pills in my pocket ~ toothless eyeball
4:48 AM v/vm ~ he ain’t heavy he’s my *butcher/ ~ masters of the absurd ~ v/vm test records
4:53 AM liz christine ~ or ten pills at three o’clock ~ sweet mellow cat ~ flau
4:57 AM saturday looks good to me ~ think about tomorrow ~ saturday looks good to me (blue vinyl reissue) ~ polyvinyl
5:01 AM greg boring ~ night moves ~ heavy syrup ~ critical heights
5:08 AM gay cat park ~ a bunch of flowers ~ synthetic woman ~ medical records
5:12 AM kano ~ ikeya-seki ~ another life ~ full time
5:18 AM xander harris ~ necronomiconjure ~ 12″ ~ 100% silk
5:25 AM bizzy & co. ~ take a chance (without bizzy) ~ 12″ ~ deejay
5:31 AM cori josias ~ takin’ it straight (dub) ~ 12″ ~ carrere/metropolis
5:38 AM peaking lights ~ shines for u (innergaze rmx) ~ 936 remixed 12″ ~ 100% silk
5:42 AM john bender ~ blue ~ pop surgery ~ record sluts
5:46 AM german shepherds ~ the earthquake has come ~ music for sick queers (reissue bonus 7″) ~ superior viaduct
5:48 AM troller ~ tiger ~ troller ~ holodeck/light lodge
5:54 AM nightmare air ~ sun behind the rocks ~ high in the lasers ~ saint marie
no show next week, probably no reviews for a while, because i’ll be in austin for SXSW. expect lots of photos.
Hour 1
3:00 AM troller ~ thirst ~ troller ~ holodeck
3:06 AM fall of saigon ~ on the beach at fontana ~ fall of saigon ~ dark entries
3:09 AM cyrnai ~ noct (mourning glare) ~ charred blossoms ~ mind matter records
3:14 AM greg boring ~ fine find fined ~ heavy syrup ~ critical heights
3:20 AM mmoths ~ no one ~ diaries ~ sqe
3:24 AM german army ~ thorax journal ~ extract character flaw ~ family time records
3:31 AM german army ~ translate person ~ extract character flaw ~ family time records
3:33 AM umberto ~ the summoning ~ confrontations ~ not not fun
3:40 AM informatics ~ underlife ~ dance to a different beat ~ dark entries
3:45 AM gambit of shame ~ dancing with the turks ~ the thing from the crypt ~ dark entries
3:47 AM lust for youth ~ gently growing ~ seeds ~ sacred bones
3:49 AM holy balm ~ take it ~ it’s you ~ not not fun
3:54 AM helado negro ~ catastrophe ~ invisible life ~ asthmatic kitty
3:56 AM sally shapiro ~ this city’s local italo disco dj has a crush on me ~ somewhere else ~ paper bag Hour 2
4:00 AM ulrich schnauss ~ like a ghost in your own life ~ a long way to fall ~ domino
4:06 AM autechre ~ runrepik ~ exai ~ warp
4:10 AM arpebu ~ keymo’sabe! ~ freshmoon presents: 808k v.1 ~ bandcamp
4:14 AM lusine ~ stratus ~ the waiting room ~ ghostly international
4:19 AM doldrums ~ holographic sandcastles ~ lesser evil ~ arbutus
4:23 AM lucrecia dalt ~ saltacion ~ commotus ~ human ear music
4:29 AM ethernet ~ dog star ~ opus 2 ~ kranky
4:33 AM daft punk ~ teachers ~ discovery ~ virgin
4:36 AM dan friel ~ velocipede ~ total folklore ~ thrill jockey
4:38 AM scott & charlene’s wedding ~ gammy leg ~ two weeks ~ critical heights
4:41 AM ergo phizmiz ~ the devil in the belfry ~ eleven songs ~ care in the community
4:45 AM eat skull ~ twin sikk moons ~ iii ~ woodsist
4:48 AM ducktails ~ letter of intent ~ the flower lane ~ domino
4:53 AM dobie ~ crunch factor no. 5 ~ we will not harm you ~ big dada Hour 3
5:00 AM rob mazurek octet ~ skull caves of alderon ~ skull sessions ~ cuneiform
5:11 AM freak ache ~ …candy? ~ live ep ~ cdr
5:17 AM el fog ~ out woods and the far small town (mixed and rearranged by jan jelinek) ~ reverberate slowly ~ flau
5:27 AM brokeback ~ colossus of roads ~ brokeback and the black rock ~ thrill jockey
5:38 AM grouper ~ the man who died in his boat ~ the man who died in his boat ~ kranky
5:42 AM birds of passage ~ hollow ~ winter lady ~ denovali
5:46 AM shells ~ track 9 ~ 12/12/12 ~ ginkgo
5:50 AM the boats ~ information for employers ~ our small ideas ~ flau
5:54 AM masayoshi fujita ~ snow storm ~ stories ~ flau
The sports show was away for spring break so I did an emergency Move Your Ass in which I played Huey Lewis & The News’ magnum opus Sports and mixed it with a bunch of other stuff. Also included in this file is Pandora’s Lunchbox (the second half hour of the file) because I didn’t have time to edit it out because I’m about to go on vacation.
Epic double tape on Constellation Tatsu, following 2011 tapes on Skell, Stunned and Eggy. Ideas Of Visions is the shorter of the two (4 tracks, 20 minutes), and seems to focus more on eerie, unsettling drones, often with acoustic instruments or sound sources. Plenty of harmonium (or some such instrument), some nature sounds (or bells and shakers that suggest forest life), some violin, as well as a few plugged-in instruments. The tracks build and sometimes change drastically, as with the paranoid synths at the end of “Shake It Up And Never Return”. “Rising March” does what it says, building up creaking string sounds along with something that buzzes like an alarm, ending up with something that could soundtrack a scene in a Hitchcock film.
Toning: Stuck In Slime
Stuck In Slime (which is 9 tracks and 40 minutes long) experiments more with synths and beats, sometimes zoning out into jazzy keyboard solos (“Normal Portal”), or OPN-like prism patterns (“Coming To Know”). Still droney, but definitely more melodic and rhythmic. “Stuck In Slime” seems to tap something out in morse code with its chattering, vibrating synths, and “Reflecting Void” buries some meditative tones under crunchy, buzzy beats. “Snake Maze” keeps things sneaky, with a skittering drum pattern and a very low-to-the-ground atmosphere. “Circling The Drain” plays a pattern game with some noodly horn, softly pulsating beats, icelike ticking, and some sort of drilling synth sound, ending up sounding like a couple minutes of an alien assembly line. “Soothes” ends the tape on an appropriately calm note, with reverberating congas and warm, sunlike guitar which gently pans like rays of golden light. Like some other tracks here, it also seems to not particularly start or end, it just goes along with its mood for a few minutes and ends suddenly. A pretty diverse collection of sounds, and it seems to make sense that the tracks are divided onto two tapes the way they are, instead of just cramming them all onto a C-60.
Last year, a young Irish producer by the name of MMOTHS released an EP of tracks combining atmospheric minimal techno with post-chillwave/[imaginary made-up genre], with a guest appearance by Keep Shelley In Athens and several lush instrumentals. This new EP continues that intriguing sound, although there isn’t really any of the minimal techno-ness that I heard on the first EP (at least on the fantastic opening track “THNX”). One of his signature sounds seems to be ghostly background vocals, and these are incorporated into many tracks as they were on the debut. Additionally, “Losing You” incorporates beatboxing into its production. Opener “One” adds some crashing drums for a somewhat bombastic effect. “For Her” features vocals by Young & Sick, and basically does the type of cloudy hipster R&B thing a million and one people are doing right now. More interesting is “All These Things”, which features sensuous, upfront vocals by Holly Miranda, and is the most fully realized MMOTHS song yet. It opens with a really nice distorted kalimba-type sound, before the knocking beats and vocals come in. Closer “Too Real” can’t help but remind me of the pianos at the end of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop”, as well as Harold Budd. Like the first EP, this one feels like an intriguing early taste of something that could potentially be powerful later on.
This actually isn’t brand new material from S&CW, it’s a standalone release of their split LP with Peak Twins that came out last year on Night People in America and Bedroom Suck Records in Australia. Of course, their album Para Vista Social Club that came out a few months ago was actually a reissue of an album that originally came out in 2010, so this is still much newer material, and it shows, as it’s tighter and more polished. But it still has a lazy, slacker-y feel to it, and it still brings to mind all manners of New Zealand indie-pop. “Two Weeks” and “Gammy Leg” start this EP off with similarly uptempo and catchy music, but less than cheerful lyrics. “Two Weeks” talks about being awkward and old-fashioned, and drinking during the day and being depressed. And “Gammy Leg” is delightfully gross, centering around a “zombie leg” which keeps spurting blood and won’t seem to heal. “I Wanna Die” follows, taking the tempo down to a bluesy shuffle and adding plenty of soloing. “My World” is another song about depression, but doesn’t have the uptempo catchiness of the first two tracks. “Hazy Morning” ends the EP with a solid 6 minutes of motorik rhythm and waves of awesome guitar effects, and lyrics seeking to resolve matters: “I don’t wanna be self-destructive anymore.” An enjoyable EP that deals with dark subject matter in a creative and sometimes humorous way.
The back of this promo CD says it all: “We have no recollection of recording this”. That’s funny, because I have no recollection of listening to this! Just kidding. It definitely sounds like something by someone zonked out of their minds on some sort of abused household cleaning substance. Lots of Casios and other cheap keyboards, and a whole lot of uneasy sounds orbiting around slow carousel rhythms and female vocals which sound slightly more alert and coherent than the music, and maybe might’ve been produced to sound prettier in a different band. “Primitive Lotion” is an instrumental, and has it almost quite together, sticking to a steady Casio rhythm with delay effects, and coming off somewhat Clusterly. A few other tracks have this buzzing distortion that sounds like a misbehaving kitchen appliance or dishwasher or something, and that gets a little distracting. Final track “Night Moves” is another (mostly) instrumental cosmic space journey, with some squishy effects on the beats, and more astral synth exploration. I don’t mind the vocals on this album at all, but the tracks with less of them seem to be my favorite anyway.
The Answer Is In The Beat 