April 2012
60 posts
Roomrunner review on Dusted today
Coverage of very decent EPs by Roomrunner up on Dusted.
Candy Anne/Three-Eyed Gemini – split 7”...
Something called “The Unpop Sound” (looks more like “The Photoshop 4.0 Players” to me) presents two productions, both in a pop-psych sort of vein. Candy Anne coos and squeaks over bass guitar and a chiptune style melody, like a young lass singing over a GameBoy-derived Jesus & Mary Chain song. Three-Eyed Gemini deliver a hackneyed portrayal of commercial ‘60s raga-psych with some taboo...
Evening Meetings – “Forgotten in Seconds” b/w...
Another vector radiates from the Seattle axis that brought us A Frames, Love Tan, Factums, etc. I see how it goes in that city now, so a record like this isn’t as much of a mystery, but I’m cool with about 60% of it. “Forgotten in Seconds” … well yeah, I can’t remember this one, sorry dawggz. But “Hello Mr. Evening” seems more like it, and it’s one of those few tracks that can find success...
Group Inerane – Guitars From Agadez, Vol. 4 7” EP...
RECOMMENDED
Out of any of the “Group” recordings Sublime Frequencies has captured out of the Sahara, this is definitely among the best (along with the first offerings by Groups Doueh and Inerane, and the latest Doueh album Zayna Jumma), and definitely the most straightforward rock record of the batch. This thing will leave a fuckin’ welt on your conscience, three absolute BURNERS that work...
Hunting Party – Sub Rosa with Whispered Pacts s/t...
There’s always something to say about modern hardcore punk records, and it’s usually along one of two lines: “It’s OK/not great” or “this sounds exactly like [insert name of one of the few bands that ever got it right].” The former usually comes out of a band trying to temper an approach with some new ideas. Bay Area five-piece Hunting Party seems to fall somewhere in between those two lines of...
Martyr Privates – “Bless” b/w “Native Son” 7” (Bon...
Brisbane psych-garage trio that clings to the psych side, a la early Spacemen 3 or slightly less fucked-up American counterparts. Both tracks have kind of a stately feel about them that doesn’t dissipate in the gritty recording or workmanlike songwriting/playing. Neither one is too exciting, but play them a bunch of times and you’ll find things to like, such as their insistence on overdubbing a...
What Next? – “The Trip” b/w “Don’t Believe” 7”...
RECOMMENDED
After a brief respite following the dissolution of “party band” The German Measles, here’s Serge and Dave (a/k/a the bespectacled fellow from Cause Co-Motion) along with drummer Chie (ex-The Beast) to pick it up with a new band called What Next? The results kinda skew back to where Cause was going, with a little more ambition about them, and a drive to add something to the sound, no...
Astral Social Club/Tomutonttu – split 12” (Tipped...
Astral Social Club (Neil Campbell’s long-running “techno” project) is like opening your computer and finding a tiny, simple-minded rave going on inside. Tomutonttu (long-running Finnish electro-weirdness concern) is like opening your computer and finding thousands of little prismatic digital ants vibing the full spectrum of color. Both of these concepts are worth experiencing at least once, and...
The Blimp – Not Beer one-sided 12” EP (Violet...
Beefheart and Clevo-proto-punk comparisons abound but this conjures up a distinct memory (not that those aforementioned references constitute any real-time memories for me…I’m not that fucking old) of 10 to 15 years ago when I had a record-listening partner that would always try to turn me onto disparate but personally-insufferable crap like The Bonzo Dog Band, “early” Little Feat, The Band and,...
Bunwinkies – Map of Our New Constellations LP...
RECOMMENDED
Part of a woven and spindly new frond of psychedelia, we now find New England outfits like Quilt and now Bunwinkies to extend gentle, occasionally bitter, stylized and informed, but not really that precious forms of candlelight strum. The record is all over the place and generally worthwhile, gliding between Mazzy Star honeysliders and something more distinctly American and austere....
Daytona – Storm So Long 12” EP (self-released)
Carolina kids come to Brooklyn to get the band together. Some curious elements remain from what must have been a textbook regional upbringing in indie rock, in that we hear a need for utility outside of what a traditional rock instrument – or capable rock musician – can fill, and a reliance on a certain type of sound (the rangy, caterwauling, expansive form of pop that divides a meditative...
Deep Waters – s/t LP (self-released)
Solo project for an artist who self-identifies with both Smog, Red House Painters and Grouper, more like working in the disused spaces between such artists, where soulfulness and meaning are hard to come by, and are flyblown wrecks when they do. The record is ambitious but problematic to the core, an attempt at meaningful evasiveness in music which avoids sensible categorization in the context of...
The Enthusiasts – “Sinkin/Risin” b/w “Joanne” 7”...
RECOMMENDED
Young rockers from a short ride up the Metro-North come across with The Goods, straight up. This is an anonymous, even amateur looking record which arrived here held together with staples, and with a presentation like this I’d have expected the worst. NOT SO. Rarely are there surprises of this magnitude, a well-executed, smokin’ hot romp through the contested area between late ‘60s...
EZRAMO – Come Ho Imparato A Volare 12” EP (Corvo)
Improvs built around three of my least favorite musical concepts of all time (Roma folk music, aimless acoustic drone, synth/piano meanderings). Musically it’s as skillful as it needs to be, but conceptually it is like the trifecta of shit, like someone rubbing two big hunks of Styrofoam together, like one of those Las Vegas resort commercials with the old people fucking in it, and only a...
Foi Pour Pusillanime – s/t 7” EP (self-released)
RECOMMENDED
Putting this record on shut down the rest of the turning world, and dragged me by the ankles into a wheezing, festering sump of bilious quicksand. Creepy, icky experimental blips – six of ‘em, made by the French duo of Caroline Ehretique and Ogrob (he of Micro_Penis and a handful of other disturbing ensembles), given life by way of a number of instruments, tapes and tools, and...
Geffika/Skimask – split LP (Sophomore Lounge)
RECOMMENDED
Geffika side is the tits. Doom-noise via bass and drums and maybe a guitar that isn’t played like a guitar likes to be played. Heavy as hell and reminiscent of why noise-rock went from being a punch-line in my Y2K world to a savior in my current environment. Skimask is a little more challenging in the structural department but no less noisy and probably capable of future brilliance,...
Hey Colossus – Dominant Male LP (Clan Destine)
Like a combination of Black Elk and what you think all those quasi-darkwave/goth side projects on 4AD in the mid-80’s might sound like had you bothered to raise the curiosity level to “seek out and hear” mode. This record has been floating around in demo and maybe another form since 2009 but enjoyed proper vinyl treatment by Clandestine within the past year (I get the stuff that is already way...
Kam Kama – The Tiled House 12” EP (Sister...
Five-piece lite Goth from Indiana, where the flatness and cornfields and general air of loss fosters this kind of music now and again (see also state-mates TV Ghost, though those guys are from Lafayette and not Bloomington, which is harder somehow). There’s not a lot of consequence here, just six songs of yearning, college campus dark rock, with a singer who closely resembles Honor...
Koban – s/t 7” EP (The Broadway to Boundary)
Gothy post-punk duo with drum machine. Four skeletal tracks of guitar, bass, vocals and preset beats, a flatliner if there ever were. Not sure what they’re trying to accomplish here other than maybe have fun, and possibly guilt people into taking this record off their hands. There’s absolutely nothing new or original or exciting here, just a little noise and a little muffled sentiment that stays...
Lantern – “I Don’t Know” b/w “Out Of Our Heads” 7”...
Can-Am trade agreement band, currently whelming tens of people in Philly. What’s at stake here is … well, not much; the same old, tired Nuggets-style chestnuts, and the lack of audio fidelity hems in whatever peacocking their outta-site singer manages to peel off. “I Don’t Know” is a straight ahead frat rocker; “Out Of Our Heads” aims for the Stooges, and would get there if it didn’t sound so...
