September 2009
57 posts
Richard Ramirez & MSBR – Negative/Offensive (A...
Last in a four part series of joint collaborations between these two prolific noise artists, each artist providing source material to the other. Very raw and strategically composed, sounding like a harsh noise version of Morton Feldman or John Cage. For anyone looking for looking for such unrelenting reliability to form, here you go. Ramirez, as an artist, really shines through on this much in...
Emily Scott/Hélène Renaut – Seasonal Sevens:...
First in a series of four singles from this Scottish label, showcasing material best suited to the season on the label. Emily Scott sticks to the traditions of British parlor folk on her number “Pond Dipping,” doing those Ditty Bops multi-tracked vocals and generally expressing pleasantry, if not innovation. One-time Incredible String Band member (guessing this isn’t necessarily an exclusive...
Dylan Shearer – Planted/Plans LP (Yik Yak)
Dylan Shearer simply lacks the goods needed to properly navigate the freak-folk ruins. That sub-genre, like all now-forgotten, phased-out, or bulldozed-over developments in underground pop culture, was born of dominating chapters that can themselves be traced back to one governing genre of the past twenty years: indie rock. You can pile on as many forgotten Xian obscurities and 70’s...
Bobby Ubangi – Inside the Mind of Bobby Ubangi LP...
“Everybody’s watching me drown.” Coming out of anyone else’s mouth, it’s a metaphor. Coming from the late Benjamin Jay Womack, it was simply the truth. It’s a line delivered in the snotty sneer common to garage rock steez but there’s also something non-judgemental about it. Yeah, everyone is watching me drown. What else is new? Womack, known as Bobby Ubangi, died...
Xela – The Illuminated LP (Dekorder)
Proper vinyl treatment by Dekorder to this avant-garde influenced work, originally released as a limited edition cassette on Digitalis Industries. A real throw back to early United Diaries, unknown sources of sound blended with textured fumbling of clanging objects, bells and chimes, lightly tossed around to grumbling voice manipulation and esoteric moans. The scary world of which Xela exists...
Various Artists – Tarantismo Summit Vol. 1 LP...
A very strange collection of groups thrown together on this record to which I still am a bit clueless as to what links them all together (even after reading the long-winded and unnecessary liner notes affixed to the front cover). First side goes right into Smegma and does not disappoint; typical freeform weirdness at its finest, abraded by wild ethnic horns, improvised percussion, broken...
Sic Alps – A Long Way Around to a Shortcut 2xLP...
This one should send my Tumblarity back up into the low double digits … I still wait to find out if Sic Alps can deliver on their promise, one which is held by thousands as Thee Reel Deel Haight-Ashbury Time Machine and Secret Guardians of the Omniverse, and still can’t determine if their promise is entirely based on novelty or if they will ever coalesce into something a bit more tenable....
August 2009
74 posts
Recent Activity, week of August 24-30, 2009
Found all these:
Chrome — Alien Soundtracks LP (Siren, cover in bad shape but vinyl is pretty good) Sorcery — Stunt Rock LP (Australian press) Rahsaan Roland Kirk — Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata LP Bakamono — Urko 10” Geronimo Black s/t LP The Fatback Band — Yum Yum LP Danny Kirwan — Second Chapter LP Danny Kirwan s/t LP Pissed Jeans...
Bobb Bruno – s/t CS (DNT)
Very repetitive synth noodling at first with no sign of any build or concept and keeps this going for most of the release. Not to say this tape doesn’t have moments of great rhythmic layering as the tape goes on, but all in all it was a bit boring, like one of those Klaus Schultze-inspired “fan favorite” attempts in which all the basic ideas were down, but not very well executed. The moments where...
Coach Fingers – One Jack Shy of a Cycle LP (Black...
Once again, a band’s name or cover art erects an impenetrable barrier, forever separating listeners with good taste from whatever constitutes the music, good or bad. I always stop to give serious consideration to the following: If a band settles on a wildly unsavory presentation – moniker, art, or both – it’s a safe wager that the music is going to follow suit. This time, it’s cover art....
Cult Ritual – LP1 LP (Youth Attack)
It could only happen in the late ‘00s! A hot-on-a-weekly-basis band releases an album with variants that command top dollar almost instantly, yet can be ordered for regular price with a minimal amount of investigative work. In the case of Tampa’s Cult Ritual, though, does it really matter? The latest do-no-wrong ‘er in hardcore, or so goes every single thing ever written about them, it should...
Emeralds – Fresh Air 7” (A Soundesign Recording)
Bought this at the Throbbing Gristle show where they opened, and promptly forgot about it. Oh well, here we are now. Not clearly labeled, this one. Side A is some of the most melodic material I’ve heard from this celebrated drone ensemble, with actual discrete tones on top of the drones. It’s pretty, and you can tell that Emeralds is the sort of band that has put a decent amount of thought in...
Gary War – Opens CS (Captured Tracks)
Overnight pop-psych rock outfit Gary War complement their highly lauded LPs on Sacred Bones and SHDWPLY with a nice low-key offering on Captured Tracks. Starts off with catchy hooks, driving riffs and signature effects-laden drown out vocals and continues on that route until the end. Mostly more of the same that you’ve come to expect from this band … well written pop-rock songs with vocal effects...
Maniacs Dream – Zanzibar CS (Lal Lal Lal)
Free-form tribal rockers Maniacs Dream really outdid themselves here. Side A consists of a solid heavy jam sounding as if someone grabbed any art freak noise outfit out of the Providence/Load Records scene and dropped them feet first into the hills of Morocco. Side B goes on a bizarre psychedelic head trip starting off with inconsistent noise monikers, found object silliness and all out insanity....
Needle Gun – Afternoon Computer Umbrage LP (EHSE)
OK, here’s a joke for the ladies: What type of Harry Pussy album does Needle Gun’s s/t LP resemble? Give up? Well, that would be the one they kept sitting around for years in the event they had to initiate the three-pronged whammy of terminating a contractual agreement, getting sued, or cleaning the cobwebs out of their unwieldy fan-base! In case you didn’t understand the word-count advancement...
Pipeline Alpha – Darking Lights Of Mazil CS (DNT)
Just when I thought DNT had released some of the weirdest and most diverse recording this planet had to offer, they go ahead and slip out a nice gem by the moniker of Pipeline Alpha. PA seems to have crawled from the cutting room floor of The Conet Project and threw itself through enough effects processors and gristleizers to make one wonder what planet this is from. Spare keyboard drones...
Real Estate – “Fake Blues” b/w “Pool Swimmers” 7”...
I was waiting for this band to open up a little bit, based on some vague promise found in their debut 7”. With this release – in the interim, Pitchfork has become a fan, somehow grafting an association with Woodsist and Captured Tracks, labels that I really have no opinion of, unless they release bad records – they sound more and more like a band that just formed with a primary influence of that...
Teenage Cool Kids – Foreign Lands LP (Protagonist...
Foreign Lands has a could-be-anyone-this-late-in-the-game feel; consummately inoffensive most of the time, nudging up to the low end of “good” in spots, and on a debt consolidation plan to repay the first run of bands from earlier in the decade that neutered the Y2K version of the Flaming Lips. Let’s go over that again with the gift of clarification: Singer sounds identical to Wayne Coyne, the...
Uneven Universe – Nightcrawler Walls CS (DNT)
This tape seems to start off pretty slow and confused as to what direction this could possibly take, but that mystery soon reveals itself after a good minute into this release. Echoed sax drone perfectly layered on top of minimal soundscapes, very reminiscent of early Nurse With Wound with a strain of John Olsen/Wolf Eyes free drone jazz rhythms. It ebbs and flows into sparse and creepy structures...
Various Artists – Psyched Punch: DNT 3 Year...
Seems like DNT has been around a lot longer than just three short years; by looking at their impressive back catalog, you’d think they were around for ten or more. This two-tape set is the perfect introduction to anyone wanting to dabble in far-out experimental chromium culture. With such a bizarre and diverse roster of releases, these tapes take you through the “best of” DNT without going...
