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Regular visitors to the Brainwashed message board might be familiarwith the name of industrial prog fiend Tim Jones. Now his cover's blownbecause The Brain can reveal that not only is he the one and moanlyPendro, but also a collaborator in noise with Triclops and productionassistant for the aural hauntings of Berkowitz, Lake & Dahmer. LikeBLD, Pendro releases have so far been CD-R's on Fflint Central, thelabel that Tim founded with longtime friend from Fflint Barry Williams."Peninsula" is particularly notable for including a good chunk of ahead on collision of roaring analogue synth and minidisc loops duringwhich Pendro almost blew the roof off at a Rotations night inManchester. Pendro's mind crumbling thick drones and piercing whistlesare bolstered to eye popping effect by some choice recordings ofbuddhist monks' gutteral chanting and what sounds like black waterswirling down the satanic plughole. This is my favourite noise fromFflint Central yet! The thick choking smog of this epic 'MasonicIncinerator' is preceded by what sounds like the looped distress callof an animated bagpipe beast called 'Flip' and followed by four moretruncated chunks of looping and loping Pendroism which inflitrate thedark camouflaged corridors of Faculty X and leave a trail of dancingmonkey droppings whilst the disembodied organ grinder grunts inectoplasmic fury. Whilst there is much wrongness in the unsettled beatsof Pendro, the closing 'Breizh Da Virviken' washes out the oddity insome eerie but calm cavernous ambient loop pools.
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- The entire CD-R can also be heard online via Fflint Central.
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Collecting most of the 12" tracks from the past 3 years, Rhythm &Sound's s/t CD is the first since 98's Burial Mix collection"Showcase". Unlike that disc, which featured the vocals of Tikimanthroughout, this disc is primarily instrumental save for 1 track.Rhythm & Sound are part of the Berlin based contingent of minimalelectronic music makers, their specialty being lazy dub in varyingdegrees of fuzziness. Repetition is key as a limited palette ofbass/beats are treated with an equally limited palette of dub effectsfrom 6 to 17 minutes apiece. One thing's for sure - you need to be afan of the sound to be able to sit through the entire 80 minutes.Fortunately, the tempos and arrangements are varied enough to maintainmy interest. "Smile" features the heavily accented spoken words ofSavage which is fine but not as engrossing as Tikiman's more melodicsinging. "Mango Drive" and "Outward" are the most likely ones toconvince you to get up off the couch and move a little while the restare better suited for a ganja coma. Good stuff, but I prefer Rhythm& Sound's sound as a vehicle for Jamaican vocalists.
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The Oakland California trio Replicator ignite their debut album with an instrumental that puts the rock into rocket. Slow burn smouldering dual note guitar atmospherics soon zoom boldly skyward with big brash jettison chords that'd make Trans Am's Red Line go green. For the next six songs they twist and turn through angular song forms with clipped vocals which couple melodic hooks with a complexity which is forceful but never forced. The hard hitting precision production from Shellac bassist Bob Weston gives equal weight to every aspect of Replicator's sound, and might just get them a few more Shellac comparisons than they otherwise would get, but they are definite fans of that band and at times employ similarly dynamic song structures.
However they have a stronger melodic sensibility that on 'Strategery' recalls an angrier Poster Children and on 'Motivationally Challenged' they remind me how good the first Archers of Loaf album was. Replicator play with an engaging energy and exuberance on their songs but it's the three instrumental tracks that really fire me up. The mournful guitar on 'Journey to the End of the Night part II' rises to another crescendo that doesn't quite erupt like the opening '(No More) Salted Beef' did but sounds just fine even so. The long goodbye of their 'Taxi Driving' finale couples a moving piano melody with tub thump drums and a backwards rotor loop betrays a Flaming Lips influence, and perhaps opens the door to more experimentation with their sound next time round?
 
 
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- Check the Replicator site for downloads of three "Winterval" tracks.
 
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I've mostly lost faith in the whole Ant-Zen/Hands thing. Recently,though, two albums were released that nearly restored my entire faithin the style of music as a whole: Azure Skies (reviewed last week) andTarmvred's "Subfusc."Right from the start, "Subfusc" appealed to my tastes - most of thesongs are quite long (I'm a long-song freak). But what really sets itapart is the fact that it's written really damned well. You will findno contrived distorted dancefloor songs here: the beats are there, andin full force, but they never slip into the four-on-the-floor trap andthey will never make you think you're listening to Noisex.
Which brings me to the point that Tarmvred sounds a lot like an evolvedWinterk¹lte. The structure and approach is kind of the same, but I dareto say that Tarmvred pulls it off better... Nor is Tarmvred afraid tobreak out the Sidstation, and drop in a phat old-skool C64 melody atthe end of track one. The whole album has little cool bits like thesein it, that break away from the cliches and make wonderful use of new,interesting sounds.
The album gets slightly redundant at points (some of the beginningparts of the longer songs are unnecessary)... but this is still awonderful album, especially for anyone who was listening to Ant-Zen afew years ago and then got tired of the club music crap. But hey, theclub kids should like it too: this is something for everyone. Get it.
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This little 3" CD from the Hot Air label, with it's quaint pictures ofIndonesian women wearing old hats of the fifties, has been caughtmasquerading as a reissue of a rare tape classic which was supposedlyoriginally only released in South East Asia on the Kesenian label in1982. If the sleeve notes are to be believed, which they're not, thenObeng Ungu and Jalan Buntu not only paid musical tribute to the bravehat wearing women of Sumatra, who risked internment and publicexecution for embracing fashions from outside their culture, but werethemselves the victims of cultural reappropriation. Their 1981recordings of sessions at the Daging Dingin Candi, beating theirgambangs and rubbing their metallophones, were ahead of their time.They were so ahead of their time that their odd combo which soundedlike it had it's pot gongs, cuks, caks and sekelengs mixed down on alaptop, that Salford duo Stock, Hausen & Walkman ripped them offwilly nilly for their "Organ Transplants". Well, old John Peel of RadioOne was fooled. Admittedly, it probably doesn't take much to fool MrPeel, but surely the picture of the 'Public parading of condemned hatwearers' ought to give the game away if the music itself didn't?Strangely Matt Wand, who has been indulging in works of fiction, hashad emails from people with faulty memories congratulating him onreissuing such a mythic recording. I told Matt that the twelve shorttracks with silly long titles made me think of truncated "OrganTransplants" done with ethnic percussion and tropical croaking samples.Matt laughed and told me to fuck off.
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Having previously pumped up the sounds of surgically enhancedflatulence for a Hot Air 7", the diagnostic sound recording services ofDoctors Stahlgren and Ferguson were in demand. Their biggest job todate was the big Omag Magnetizing bank scam. They were hired to recordall the whistles, creaks, rattles, wirrings and splutterings made bythe printing, magnetizing, sorting and reading processes that digestcheques travelling through the swollen world banking gut. Their bigmoney diagnosis remains a mystery, but some of the magnetic printingsounds have been hacked, chopped, thoughtfully rearranged and evengiven the odd punchline here and there by their creator Matt Wand. Forthis dose of Hot Air he's been wearing his electroacoustic hat. Shortspells of calm droning are followed by quick collaged crescendos andwhilst it all seems quite condensed, there's nothing to stop a secondlisten. Perhaps the beauty of the 3" CD format is brevity, but I couldhappily listen to more of this, as Matt does electroacoustic laptoppingwell and leaps and hobbles adventurously into more abstractsoundscaping than on the comparatively safe but cheerful Ungu Buntu 3".I'm particularly floored by the big mangled mash up peaks of the 'DeadThixotropic Duct Roller', but can just as happily dust the speakersdown with the eerie hum wobbling of 'Anti-set-off Powder'. Now wheredid I leave that 'Shrinking Disinclination Loop'?
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Based on my first encounters with Ambarchi’s work, I have always associated him with the abstract, post-rock tinged world of experimental guitar noise and drone. However, following up his recent Audience of One album, this album continues his transition into more "song" oriented work, and brilliantly so. Simple, but hypnotic in its execution, it a taut, dramatic 30-plus minute single track that grabbed my attention immediately and has stood up strongly ever since.
Sagittarian Domain is a single track album, with most of the instrumentation (guitar, synth, drums and vocals) played by Ambarchi himself, with a hint of stings arriving later on, initially as an additional element, but eventually becoming the focus.His penchant for more oblique, dissonant guitar experimentation is still here, but pushed more to the back, punctuating a tight, tense piece of music.
Repetition is the name of the game here:opening with tightly clipped notes and erratic delays, the guitar is soon matched with a robotic Moog synth bass line and subtle, punctuating feedback.It makes for an excellent slow build, never dragging too long, and elements eventually settle into a notable groove.
Once the drums kick in, it becomes a film noir-meets-raut motorik excursion, the perfect score for a car chase or other tense, kinetic scene.Ambarchi's drumming is not complex or exceptionally poly-rhythmic by any means (he is no Jaki Liebezeit), but has just the right sound and production to give a noisy, effective garage quality that makes it utterly engaging. The rhythm section remains consistent mostly throughout the bulk of the piece, with only small variations to be heard.They are minute, but quite effective in the otherwise hypnotic repetition.All the while Ambarchi's guitar scrapes become louder and more forceful, only to retreat back into the mix and come back once again.
It is not until the final third that he lets loose, casting out waves of squalling guitar noise as a frenzied compliment to the tightly disciplined rhythms.When it eventually overtakes the rhythm, everything falls away to reveal a trio of strings in tight harmony with one another, making for a lush, cinematic flourish to the relentless tension that preceded it.
Given that it is a long-form single piece, the intentional repetition might be off-putting to some, but it becomes this album’s greatest asset.It is through this complex, nuanced repetition that the variations and eventually dramatic ending shine through.To use an aforementioned metaphor, it is akin to a tense chase, which seems almost unrelenting, until it does, releasing that pent up energy in a glorious, beautiful ending.
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Much ado has been made about its two hour duration, and Michael Gira's assertion that The Seer represents the culmination of the entire Swans discography, which is not to be disregarded. From the monolithic, visceral guitar stabs, to the dark, folk hued melodies, and dissonant, deconstructed samples and loops, it all appears here, sometimes within the same song. Thankfully, it does not come across as a conclusion, but the culmination and self-actualization of a long, unparalleled career.
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Much ado has been made about its two hour duration, and Michael Gira's assertion that The Seer represents the culmination of the entire Swans discography, which is not to be disregarded. From the monolithic, visceral guitar stabs, to the dark, folk hued melodies, and dissonant, deconstructed samples and loops, it all appears here, sometimes within the same song. Thankfully, it does not come across as a conclusion, but the culmination and self-actualization of a long, unparalleled career.
In some ways My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky felt incomplete as a Swans album in that pieces of it ("Jim," "Reeling the Liars In") sounded more like Gira's work with Angels of Light than the explosive, grandiose drama associated with every step of Swans' career.This was exacerbated to me upon seeing them on their 2010 tour, where the more Swans-like tracks from that album took on an even stronger, more fully realized form in the live setting.While no recorded medium can fully replicate the physical impact of a Swans concert, The Seer comes closer to that intensity than most studio albums could.
The centerpiece of the album, the 30+ minute title track, brilliantly spreads all over the place.Opening with a sustained mass of horns and strings that resemble some of Hermann Nitsch's best compositions, it eventually retreats into a slow build guitar/bass/drums arrangement.It unsurprisingly comes to a dramatic head:a pounding, abusive roar of drums and guitar that has all the aggression of something from Cop, though with full on violence rather than seething rage.It does ascend from music into something different: a living, breathing monstrosity of sound that no other band could build.However, while this song could be the embodiment of Gira's 30-year career, it is not afraid to throw in some curve balls.The uncharacteristic vocal delivery at the end bears more than a passing resemblance to Damo Suzuki, atop an Eastern affected instrumental backing, something I would have never expected to hear.
Closer "The Apostate" is the other monolithic pillar of The Seer.Clocking in at just over 23 minutes, it also does an admirable job at condensing the Swans legacy into a single piece.Expansive, opening textures and ambient loops give way to a glorious wall of guitar noise and massive drums, forming into the pounding riffs and guitars, and ending with Gira literally singing in tongues.With this, the album and song culminates with that sense of religious ecstasy that Gira has been working with since Children of God.While it has been hinted at on previous albums, here it is fully realized.
Divisive former Swans member Jarboe even appears, in the form of vocal fragments on "A Piece of the Sky."Throughout its 20 minutes, it is a backwards journey through the Swans discography.Initially resembling Soundtracks for the Blind via its dissected loops and heavily processed recordings that are almost completely unidentifiable, it all transitions into a melodic bombast akin to Love of Life, with its slower pace and rich orchestrations, with vocals appearing only within its dying moments.
The smaller pieces here could potentially get lost within the sprawling epics, but for the most part they stand on their own, even in their shorter durations."Lunacy" has the unfortunate slot opening for such a dramatic album, but does so very well, embracing that barely contained mass of sound that is Swans which inevitably explodes.It is a bludgeoning introduction, even with the folky vocals from Gira and guests Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker from Low.
The early form of "The Seer" that appeared on the limited first run of We Rose From Our Beds—that Gira said would be discarded—appears in a more fleshed out form as "The Seer Returns," which is not a reprise as much as it as stand alone piece, a vaguely bluesy number that moves along with a relatively high level of restraint.
"Song For A Warrior" is the only odd duck on this album.This is an acoustic ballad of sorts with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on vocals (Gira doing background).Perhaps it harkens back too much to the Angels of Light material, or it just has a different sense to it overall, but it just seems a bit out of place.Even after a number of plays, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it.
The Seer is one of the few albums that are not listened to as much as experienced.Like the body of Swans discography, it is not as much about catchy songs or memorable melodies, but a cathartic experience like no other.However, it is more than just a work of power and drama, but a piece of art that is best experienced again and again.Like all good art, it is not always pleasant or enjoyable in the traditional sense, but it a vital work nonetheless.
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Currently only available as limited edition CD-R (though there are plans for a regular CD/vinyl release soon), these three soundtracks for short films of Derek Jarman have provided Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown plenty of inspiration following their superb album Wounded Galaxies Tap at the Window of last year. Some of the same textures and moods are revisited but it is already possible to hear that Cyclobe are developing creatively at an unprecedented rate. Between Wounded Galaxies… and this, they have completely met, exceeded, and destroyed any expectations I may have had of them.
 
Unfortunately, I have never seen the three films featured here so how Cyclobe’s sounds actually pair with the images are beyond the scope of this review. However, given the group’s musical pedigree and love for avant garde cinema, I can only imagine that they suit each other perfectly. Bearing that in mind, the music on its own is intoxicating. "Sulphur" is a stuttering, blurry composition that slowly ripples the air like a dream. The shuddering electronic aura is punctuated by Cliff Stapleton’s eerie hurdy-gurdy, the music shifting like a fog that has suddenly becomes too dense to see through.
With "Tarot," there is a very different take on the mood with Stapleton’s hurdy-gurdy sounding more like some kind of desert serpent. Mike York also joins in on bagpipes to create a fantastic, slow melody. A web of gurgling electronics and dramatic piano chords frames Stapleton and York’s intense performance, all the constituents coming together to form one of the best few minutes of music I have yet heard from Cyclobe. Though, "Garden of Luxor" is definitely in strong contention for that accolade too. Drifting glacially from note to note, the piece slowly builds into a decadent, vaguely Egyptian theme which finishes off with regal poise. The end result is something resembling the music of Coil's "Tenderness of Wolves" but without the menace.
This is an essential EP that not only deserves a wider distribution but also should come as a DVD with Jarman’s films included. Considering both David Tibet’s new group Myrninerest and Coil have previously composed music for Jarman’s Journey to Avebury and of course Throbbing Gristle’s soundtrack to In the Shadow of the Sun, there is plenty of material out there for a decent DVD set. In the meantime, I will have to just enjoy this sublime music on its own which luckily is no great hardship.
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There was always the fear that the reformed Swans might have been a one-shot moment of greatness but The Seer counters any argument that My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky was an aberration. Across the two hours, the group cover more ground here than most bands cover in a career. This is visionary, powerful statement that manages to be both visceral and transcendental, something more akin to a birth than rock music.
What strikes me first about The Seer is the brightness that permeates the music. Mandolins, strings and piano dotted throughout the album bring a lightness of sound not heard since The Burning World though here they are used far more effectively. Despite its slightly depressing topic, "Lunacy" has the same ebullient feeling that The Angels of Light did during their Akron/Family incarnation. Almost ecstatic chanting (backed by Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low) and a driving rhythm catapult the song into a searing locked groove before suddenly opening up into the desert blues developed on the last Swans studio album. It therefore comes as a surprise when the next piece seems to jump back to the kind of style that I would have expected from Swans in the mid-80s; "Mother of the Love" is taut and powerful yet it does not sound as thuggish or malevolent as the old Swans. Here, Swans are more like dancers than fighters.
The album’s title track was originally developed during the tour supporting My Father… and a work-in-progress of the piece can be heard on the live album, We Rose from Your Bed with the Sun in Our Head. Those lucky enough to nab the limited edition version of that release will have also heard a very different acoustic demo of the piece. Here, Gira and his group have succeeded in combining the two sides of "The Seer" into a two-piece masterpiece. Starting with a glorious bagpipe drone that would put Yoshi Wada to shame before Thor Harris and Phil Puleo’s dulcimers and percussion appear, adding definition and color to the work. When Puleo hits the bass drum, it feels like the world’s heartbeat is joining in with Swans. It is still possible to hear the ghost of "I Crawled" in the bass line (the piece began as a jammed out intro to "I Crawled" during their last tour) but once the hammered-on guitar joins in, the character of "The Seer" changes completely. It is like they are showing us what Swans used to deliver and where they are heading towards now.
The second part, "The Seer Returns," picks up on the lyrical ideas explored in the acoustic demo but sounds like Swans playing funk (a lot better than expected). Usually, Gira’s demo versions sound close to the "finished" piece but here the band have annihilated the original sketch. Jarboe provides backing vocals, an almost angelic choir taking the place of the bagpipes and the result is something close to a religious experience. Honestly, these two tracks could have made a great album on their own and I have been finding it tough to continue on with the rest of The Seer without a break. It is overwhelming but not difficult, the fatigue is that of paying so much attention that it wears me out rather than The Seer suffering from a case of double album bloated-ness syndrome.
Something that has polarized pre-release discussions of the album has been Gira’s announcement that Karen O would be singing on the album. "Song for a Warrior" had been included in Gira’s recent solo sets and although I do not agree with him that his voice does not suit the song, Karen O’s vocals do work particularly well here in the full band arrangement. If this was some unknown vocalist, I expect there would not be so much undeserved derision. This is a sweet song and all the sweeter and stronger for Karen O’s inclusion.
Naysayers do not have to wait long for Swans to bring things back up to the boil with "Avatar," which has the same apocalyptic glory of Johnny Cash’s "Ghost Riders in the Sky." Here Christoph Hahn’s slide guitar subtly follows Gira’s lyrics as the rest of the band gallop alongside them. The song’s climax explodes in a rain of fire, guitar, and joy before dissipating into the night, replaced by the sound of the real flames that summon in "A Piece of the Sky." Again, Swans engage in a slowly evolving build up before releasing the pent up energy in a cathartic and utterly satisfying way. Unlike similar explorations during the '90s, the aforementioned brightness and ecstasy reigns supreme over the darker moods and vibes of older Swans. This is more like classic Neil Young recordings (before he started losing close friends to heroin) in that it rocks hard without sacrificing the bliss at its core.
This is an incredible continuation of Swans’ legacy. The Seer has all the hallmarks that have made Gira’s music so essential and compelling yet it also pushes the idea of what Swans can be even further than before, which is saying something considering the breadth of styles that Gira has incorporated into his music over the years. Bearing in mind that Gira has mentioned that this year’s touring will already include new songs, it would appear that there is still at least another album left in Swans. Based on where they are at now, I cannot wait to hear where they go next.
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