January 2011
58 posts
Sic Alps review
Since this band is of interest to many of you, here’s my review of Sic Alps’ Napa Asylum, published today on Dusted.
- Doug Mosurock
Promo: BATS IN THE BELL HOUSE This Saturday 1/29
Use this handy flyer as a map to locate the Bell House. We’re in the front bar and Mission of Burma is playing in the main room under separate cover. This night is FUN if you’re into this sort of thing, so I hope you will attend.
- Doug Mosurock
Art Abscons – Der Verborgene Gott LP (Blind...
German neo-folk that’s absolutely crazy in its pursuit of earth-bound paradise on its own terms. Total Ren Faire/Medieval Times parking lot status achieved at several points throughout this LP, against gentler pagan folk-goth, all with breathy Deutsche lyrics and the sort of synth-“Wicker Man”/Kate Bush mindset that is hard to take seriously at points, but very hard to shake at others. The band...
Bachelorette – The End of Things 12” EP (Drag...
One of two earlier efforts by New Zealander Annabel Alpers, before her quasi-breakthrough My Electric Family for Drag City. She clearly comes from the Xpressway tradition and has a background in the ‘90s scene, as a member of Space Dust, just before the lights went out down there. This is some of the earliest Bachelorette music, and though it still contains more electronics and vocal treatments...
Detective Instinct – “Repeat Please” b/w “More...
Detective Instinct is a gentleman from the UK who has been dabbling in field recordings, found sounds, tape loops and general ambient detritus on his 4-track for so long that he has been a guest of some pretty established names (in the world I occupy, and likely you as well). This is #1 of an ongoing series of tape-trading exercises with some of his heroes and colleagues, and it happens to be of...
Directorsound – Before the March 7” EP (Tona...
Understated fairground melancholy, not unlike some of the more drug-smashed passages on The Thinking Fellers’ Mother of All Saints – the stuff that wasn’t “Feller Filler” but wasn’t quite fully realized, either. That’s not entirely fair to this record, actually, as this is very beautiful and organic instrumental … pop? Could be skiffle, with its lack of modern reference points, but I don’t...
Dylan Ettinger & the Heat – “Smokin’” b/w “Miami...
Sleeve has clipart pics of a Strat and in the foreground, a Keytar-type of strap-on synth. The background is very “Tron”-ish. The band is a duo of drums and effects-buried saxophone. The visuals on the back are of an ‘80s-looking rack stereo system, a faded-in image of an ‘80s-looking lady that one might find adorning the walls of an old-lady salon, and the background is a vague appropriation of...
Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth – The Seed of...
Danny Cruz is wheelchair-bound, and his pictured drummer is afflicted with Down’s Syndrome. This is about as outsider as music gets, a passion that will simply not die – shattering practice-space rock, piano balladry, and utter freakouts are all you get here. One of the more in-your-face type records ever to walk through these doors, for sure. I hope you can handle it, because this is some of...
Followed By Static – “Smiles” b/w “Bones” (Sundae)...
Damn, it’s like Austin TX sat back and thought, “You know, there was all that talk in the ‘90s about us becoming the next whatever-city, but did we ever actually BECOME it? Hard to say…well, just in case, let’s go ahead and do that shit. Better late than never!” Perhaps there’s something down there that prevents the dipshit-threshold from being reached (I’m sure the locals would disagree...
Guitaro – Futura Black LP (We Made Records)
Originally a CD-R scattered around in tiny numbers during the last decade’s earlier years, Future Black is the ultimate latter-wave shoegaze interpretation and must be heard by more people. We Made Records is a brand new label run by a fellow named Vince who used to do Manifold Records (K.K. Null, Final, D.J. Spooky, etc) in the ‘90s and up through Y2K. Even in this privacy-is-golden era, you...
The Hunter Gracchus/Kommissar Hjuler und Frau –...
The Hunter Gracchus plays with an instrument chord, a sax, and bangs on the ground in torment. More of that Euro-improvisational free music clatter, with an actual two-note guitar line creeping in near the end, no matter how slight. KH and wife are German freakazoids, clad in plastic bags, who moan and writhe all over the same floor in an attempt to shock, I guess. They have dozens of releases...
Lords of Falconry – s/t LP (Holy Mountain)
Attempting to get the blown-out scorch-psych thing right has become the hobby of far too many cred enthusiasts. Sure, Monoshock was amazing and that first Comets on Fire LP was the tits, and no, I’d never heard anything recorded THAT hot … ten odd years ago. Wish I could say the same today. What I can say is that Lords of Falconry provide a needed vacation away from all of that dumbass...
Mem1 – Tetra LP (Estuary Ltd.)
Ice-cold drone rumble from a duo of Mark Cetilia on synth and partner Laura Cetilia on cello, both using electronics to achieve these means. This is how you do underwater drone: you lay it on thick, in waves the listener can’t anticipate, and push all of the air out of the space in an attempt at sonic totality. All three tracks on this LP reverberate with a lifeforce too large to be seen. A...
The Phantom Family Halo – Music from Italian T.V....
Fringe-dwellers from Louisville, formerly of a space-rock/heavy psych persuasion, here take the experimental route, with punched-in found sounds, and oddly creepy digital rock ampoules. Break-n-huff for a Butthole Surfers-style journey through the inner mind of a bunch of folks too weird to fit in any one particular category. Features great drumming and OK ideas. I don’t know. This is confusing...
Tonstartssbandht – An When CS (Choose Your Own...
39 minutes of tape goop loops from this Montreal psych/noise rock band, in a playfully experimental mode that serves some of the more warmed-over moments of their stance quite well. Mastered at the breaking point for the medium, about half of this thing is loud, rude cave-rock, with natural echo and a flair for the bombastic, while the other half farts around with vocal experiments, drum...
White Suns – Waking in the Reservoir LP...
This year’s Brooklyn noise-rock combatant, in the wake of Twin Stumps’ demise, is White Suns, a highly aggressive trio that seems to disagree with most of the records sitting in this here pile in a number of ways, all of which are pretty important and potentially world-wrecking. Eschewing the whole “we need a bass player” mentality usually stops me cold, with bad memories of goof-offs like Oxes...
Yi – At Home + 5 CS (Re-Education)
Scrappy l’il cassette EP from this Oakland-based pop band, dingy-sounding but with a very promising stance in between a punk/DIY ethos and the skinny-tie dreams of the Sunset Strip in the mid-to-late ‘70s. Rough-and-ready recording and some hoarse vocals can’t really take much away from the charms of their instrumental passages, which display some real depth in terms of where they are vs. where...
Dan Melchior and Letha Melchior Rodman need your...
Dan Melchior is a friend of mine, and a one-of-a-kind talent. I released a record by his band the Broke Revue in a past venture, and have been a supporter of just about everything he’s put out before and since. Dan’s partner in this world, Letha (also a musician), has been diagnosed with cancer, and neither of them have the kind of insurance that can provide the level of care she...
James Arthur’s Manhunt – s/t LP (Aarght!)
Scummy, leering garage/noise rock from Austin, TX that’s found a home on the Australian label run by members of Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Don’t those guys have bands like this back home? James Arthur’s Manhunt kicks up noise in spades, evoking the NYC garage contingent (Pussy Galore, Chrome Cranks, Honeymoon Killers) … which is fine, if they had much to add to it on their own, which really...
Daylight Robbery – Through the Confusion LP...
Listening to a band like Daylight Robbery makes me weary of the task at hand, and also think of what something like their band, throwbackish and thin, could be, versus what it actually is. Their twangy John and Exene hopscotching around a jangly/downwardly-mobile last gasp LA punk sound has merit, and is probably fun in the live setting, but the doldrums lingering over this LP only serve to...
Ensemble Economique – Psychical LP (Not Not Fun)
Sharply off from his Amish Records effort from last year, this new Ensemble Economique shares a release date and audio/visual spirit with the Umberto record on Not Not Fun. Though there is a bit more theory going on in the world of E.E., you may want to consider both of these works as two sides of the same coin, as they explore the seedier side of straight-to-video horror soundtracks, where...
Gala Drop – Overcoat Heat 12” EP (Golf Channel)
Dance music/jazz fusion sounds from Portugal, the likes of which bring back all the good and not-so-good memories of groups like Tortoise all at once. The level of musicianship on display here is quite impressive, the group expertly navigating bass, guitar, synth and drums in complex, polyrhythmic patterns that come across as natural and unforced. Some of the songs don’t develop beyond the...
It Sound – Hard Pop for Blue Trees LP (End Up)
Monochromatic, slightly mealy, one man, four tracks, little waiting, meager reward. Jesse Damm plays around with existing pop tropes, ignores grounding hum, and chugs away with guitar and drum machine, mostly in an unremarkable and claustrophobic style. Seems like the kind of thing that either needs a full band, or should be relegated to tapes or CDRs. If there’s a thing I like the least about...
Andrew King & Brown Sierra – The Kraken 12” EP...
Another nutter from the Dais stables, this features King on self-proclaimed “19th Century Actor-Manager Vocals” and musician Brown Sierra on electronic treatments, and was recorded by Sol Invictus’ Tony Wakeford, putting this somewhere in the steam/pagan/neo-folk camp. Evocations of the Kraken can be found within, obviously. I can’t help but think that neither Ryan nor the performers themselves...
The May Day Orchestra – Ola Benga 2xLP...
Sheesh. Double vinyl, pressed at 45, HUGE UPC label on the back … this has Kickstarter written all over it. Passion project from a bunch of St. Louis musicians who proclaim lefty/Commie leanings, and one big-ass hardon for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the Pogues, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, and other hayseed-gothic practitioners. It’s definitely the only Red C&W record I’ve gotten in the...
Oscillating Fan Club – George Washington’s Teeth...
Funny, as I have a bellyache from going through most of a bag of “Fizzy Cola” gummies during today’s review sesh. Oscillating Fan Club hails from Detroit, and tries to cover every inch of a confined space. There’s college rock jangle akin to R.E.M. or Oxford Collapse, there’s some rough surf-like stomp, some ‘60s inspired sunshine pop, some countrified twang with sights set to reasonable goals...
Ottawa – s/t 12” EP (Residue)
Remastered reissue of the good side of the Ottawa/Jihad split LP, stretched out across its own record now with bonus compilation tracks. The Still Life-style artwork has been replaced with a photo of foreboding corporate America from the sidewalk, these then-teenagers-or-just-past from Detroit exchanging one era’s standards for another. Balance runs about 75-80% powerviolence, 20-25% screamo,...
Raw Nerves – s/t LP (Inimical)
Not to be confused with Raw Nerve, part of the Youth Attack fam, this is a really pissed off hardcore band from Portland, working out of the Deathreat vein with snotty, aggressive, politically charged vocals. Guys who’ve paid plenty of dues, Raw Nerves as a band blazes along, with songs a bit longer and with bulkier arrangements that break down into suitable mosh parts. This didn’t grab me too...
RV Paintings – Samoa Highway LP (Helen Scarsdale...
Slab-constructed drone from brothers Brian and Tom Pyle, coming close to Brian’s work as Ensemble Economique (moreso the LP he did for Amish than the new one on Not Not Fun). Breathy and diffuse, this passes more of a desert vibe than anything underwater. Sandblown drone gets a pass, and the occasional jet flies overhead, completing the imagery. The duo steps out of the frame at moments, adding...
Scorpion Violente – Uberschleiss LP (AVANT!)
Ah, the French. Minimal electro/noise/drone performed by two “sickos” who are amused by themselves, by prurient lyrics and song titles, and who actually had the guts to put pictures of themselves with children on the back cover. SV’s first 12” was a pretty demented, disoriented romp through such simple but effective puddles; this debut album doesn’t do a lot to build off of that formula, other...
Shedding – Tear in the Sun LP (Hometapes)
Harmonium-dronium tedium in the vinyl medium. Five tracks, four of which feature sustained strings, stretching out to the infinite horizon, latitudes of platitudes delivered in an unoriginal intonation that matches directly with the music beneath. You’d think that someone who spent this much time stringing together drone-pop – and this is pop, make no mistake; there are chord changes and the...
Sunken – New Zealand Eels LP (Emerald Cocoon)
Here’s yet another less-than-successful attempt by me to get into a Stefan Neville project that’s not called Pumice. Sunken finds Neville with Glory Fckn Sun’s Antony Milton, trying to work a Lovecraftian deep sea evil angle vis a vis barren drone and the occasional gurgle from the depths, and some nautical folk stumble-flop. I made a judgment on dark drone last year that I am sticking to here:...
Robert Turman – Way Down LP (Dais)
Co-founding member of Non and current collaborator with Wolf Eyes, Robert Turman is a name few likely recognize at this stage, the majority of his works languishing in shoeboxes filled with cassettes or in the hands of tape-culture collectors. His 1987 release Way Down makes for a really great record that exemplifies the sounds of the industrial/loner ethos from that period – primitive drum loop...
Our own Andrew Earles in action.
Andrew Earles has assembled a significant oral history regarding the life and times of Jay Reatard upon the one-year anniversary of his death, which ran on Pitchfork today. The jab in the ribs on page 4 is a much-needed blast of reality towards the music culture of today. I’d recommend that you check it out.
Rest in peace.
Trish Keenan, of the band Broadcast, has passed away due to complications from pneumonia. This is a tragic loss. Broadcast was a nearly-perfect band and will be missed.
We wish to extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends, and fans.
Estrogen Highs – Friends & Relatives LP (Gramery)
Took a break from these guys for a while due to their shriller-not-thriller take on practice space garage rock, high on piercing noise but short on worthwhile songs. Friends & Relatives shows a considerable amount of development in however long it’s been, an affable and strummy collection that flirts with thoughtful improvisation and a warmth I didn’t think this group could summon. My...
Mountainhood – The Boat-Maker’s Daughter 12” EP...
Sometimes I think that it’s important for a younger generation to eschew, or at least be mistrustful of those older and more experienced than them. Sometimes mistakes are best experienced first-hand; other times an entirely new perspective on creative pursuits is required in order to transcend. Sadly, the latter is almost never the case, and when applied to a group like Brooklyn’s wispy, fragile...
Munly & the Lupercalians – Petr & the Wulf LP...
I’ve heard praise of this record, spearheaded by Jay Munly of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, from all vectors imaginable, even from those who don’t much care for Munly’s parent band (my parents, for example). To be fair, these sources are dead-on here, as Munly spins an arresting neo-Gothic folk tale of a faraway land, a surviving descendent of a dying people, and his own will being bent by his...
Sore Eros – Know Touching LP (Shdwply)
And here’s the other side of the problems from the Mountainhood record reviewed above, more or less solved by clear thinking, the right inspiration, and the ability to judge between the two. Sore Eros is another lo-fi pop/folk duo featuring gentle dudes with delicate falsettos, very much in the template of Woods and the like, but with better skills in the studio than their contemporaries, and a...
Straight Arrows – It’s Happening LP (Juvenile/Rice...
More missives from Australia, sent with care to me in oversized packages by one Easter Bilby of Memphis, TN, arrived last week. This individual has been batting well above the Mendoza line with a flow of independent releases from tiny labels down under. I don’t know who it is, but thanks. Now onto the Straight Arrows, who step up with a full-length that’s as much ‘60s psych/amateur as it is...
Peaking Lights – Space Primitive one-sided 12” EP...
Their Imaginary Falcons was a slow burner but proved to be one of my favorite records of 2009, a Jeep-sized chunk of blond hash dislodged from the ear of a deity. Space Primitive follows such grand assumptions to a trance-a-delic time/matter void, where we are all inverse colors and every breathing moment is vibrational cell ecstasy. Still can’t get enough of what’s going on in the Peaking...
Upcoming appearances
I’ll be playing records at the following places in Brooklyn in the coming weeks:
Sat Jan 22: COCKFIGHT at the Commodore w/ guest Margaret the Prog Lady (East Village Radio), 10pm-4am, no cover. Metropolitan @ Havemeyer, Williamsburg.
Sat Jan 29: BATS IN THE BELL HOUSE at the Bell House - goth/wave/industrial night in the front bar, 9pm-very late, no cover. Mission of Burma plays in the...
Milk Music – Beyond Living 12” EP (self-released)
I have to be honest with you: the records you send in don’t get reviewed in the order in which they are received. That shit would be crazy at this point. I was stuck in Chicago for the better part of the past two weeks, as Christmas with some real good people turned into a snow-covered delay. Had that not happened, I probably would have blown through the entire review box by now. It’s pretty...
Cola Freaks – Mig Mig Mig 7” EP (Rob’s House)
YES! A much-needed visit from the quality fairy, as I wander aimlessly through a landscape of low expectations. Side-A track “Mig Mig Mig” is so much more than the Buzzcocks worship favored by those making a written assessment of the band. Down-stroked Rocket From the Crypt slashing and a vocal approach that does a major hat trick in leaping way over any style associated with garage-punk/rock,...
Confines – Withdrawn 7” EP (Labor of Love/Side...
Another configuration of a Boston HC inner circle emerges, this one the most overtly political and direct of intent in some time. Everything about this package – the tragic, inhuman photos; the articulate personal essay; the six-panel poster which decries “THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL IS A LUXURY AFFORDED TO THE MOST WILLFULLY IGNORANT,” framing an image of a person...
Cristal – “Swedish Child” b/w “Trial” 7” (Flingco)
Straight-up ambient of the OG Eno Airports/Films varietals, without percussion of any sort, and a minimal amount of layers working separately. Still, “Swedish Child” works in that cascading-into-sadness way that all successful ambient music works, and “Trial” fails in that rudderless way that all failed ambient fails. “Swedish Child” is good enough to warrant a listen to the full-length this 7”...
Drum Kit – “Dead Vibrations” b/w “I Got a Knife”...
Maybe this is a one-man band, and maybe he got sick of people asking “what’s your band’s name?” It came to a head one day, when he grabbed two handfuls of his own hair, screamed a curse-laden rant about how people won’t leave him alone about naming his recording project, then finally threw a glance around the room, landed on an Alesis SR-18 then looked at the hastily-thrown-together kit in the...
Far Out Fangtooth – “Pathways” b/w “Why Don’t You...
Heavy Cheater Slicks-ish garage-pop that also jammed a “what if” scenario into my head, specifically, if Girls (as in the San Francisco band, not the category of humans) started really getting into Flipper. These dudes rock that dirtbag-dandy look (floppy leather hats, button-up vests), and while I can’t dance with that shit, they also just plain rock in a nicely sludgy manner that might give...
The Flips – s/t 7” EP (Hozac)
The cover features the disembodied heads of all six band members, every one of which is a woman who is either classically or sublimely easy on the peepers. Rumor has it that Paul from M.O.T.O. took one glance at this cover and it caused some full-on “Scanners” action right there in the record store. Historically, all-female bands that were also all-beautiful have sometimes been counted on for...
Mickey – “Highway Bound” b/w “Wild Kind” 7”...
A lot of people can deal with this sort of thing. An equal if not greater number of people are really into this sort of thing. Glam has been a pet interest of the D.I.Y.B.D.T.F.Y. (“Do-It-Yourself-But-Don’t-Think-For-Yourself”) movement for a couple of years now, but Mickey really leaves no guesswork as to what’s going on here. Think (but not too hard) The Sweet being blatantly ripped-off by...
