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Out on Pickled-Egg from the UK, Volcano's first LP consists of 6 new songs by these growing and mind-expanding UK surrealists. On a whole, the release is filled with a bizarre emotion that leaves a sinking feeling in your stomach.
 
 
Pickled Egg
Side A ("Yak Folk") starts with the low-fi, reverb-drenched track, "Where Are the Bounds?," which is reminiscent in feel of the first track ("Planetary Bethlehem") from The Inhazer Decline. The second track is a short snippet of eerie noise, leading into "Nobody's Falling," which utilizes their eccentric—but extremely compelling—vocal work. With a very psychedelic-rock sound, they play horns, organs, and consistent high hats, which blend to conjure up a surrealist lounge. Side B ("Y'Are") has some beautiful, brilliant work—the best VtB I've yet heard. "Egg Knowledge" makes me feel as if I am in the presence of ghosts. The vocals are haunting and extremely bizarre (comparable only to a dying elderly), and combine with the tension-building noises and tribal-esque drums to leave a queasy, almost painful mindset. Next is "Oslo Top," made of twinkly noises with demonic vocals. And finally, "Hello Graham," the long ending track, tops the album with its usage of slurred vocals and beautifully simple acoustic guitar overlayed and interchanging, putting emotions out for grabs that are both frightening and captivating. The feeling for most of the LP is, in fact, a strange, ambiguous line between comforting and terrifying; but it is executed in such a manner that is purely hypnotic.
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Bubblecore might be mostknown for their release which tiptoe around the term "post-rock" buthave a strong heavy jazz, improvisational dub feel which find their wayinto indie rock fan markets most successfully. Some releases howeverstep into the realm of spacious, beat-less sonic super structures,whether that be by means of electronics or organics. Angus Maclaurin'sdebut full-lengther on Bubblecore shouldn't come as a surprise givenwhat I just said, but it has arrived as a very pleasant and welcomedsurprise for me. Maclaurin was a local boy to the Port Chester, NYscene (home to Bubblecore) who traded in his local rock stature andmoved north to a quiet place in Maine. There in his basement laboratoryhe came up with 'Glass Music' which was constructed from layers andloops of recordings of finely tuned glasses. It starts off dark andeerie but over the course of nine tracks, it blossoms into a beautifulaural display of shimmering glistening bliss. The sounds of glassimitate gongs, chimes and bells, all of which resonate with varyingdegrees of depth. According to sources, there were no delays involved,and that the sounds appear to delay and echo due to the usage of fivedifferent reel-to-reel tape machines. Look for Angus touring with DylanGroup sometime in the next year.samples:
- Fugue
- What
- Sea Shanti (ranphoryncus remix)
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My introduction to (theband known as) Donna Regina comes from a track which appeared on aHeavenly Voices compilation a number of years ago. Years later, I'm(somewhat) past my ethereal siren-mania days, so I may have beenslightly hesitant to listen to a disc like this. 'A Quiet Week In theHouse' came to me almost too highly recommended, so I decided to giveit the benefit of the doubt. Luckily I was not disappointed. Havingmuch more fully developed their style in the years since theirappearance on the compilation, the members of Donna Regina emerge withan album which is a giant step away from the monotony which permeatesthe music of many of the other Heavenly Voices bands. 'A Quiet Week'blends understated electronic beats with eerie, twangy guitar work(frankensushi, anyone?), and the sweet, dreamy melodies are lent anexoticism via Regina Janssen's accented vocals. Despite its pop-drivenovertones, the album is pervaded by a moodiness that comes across ascool and swanky as opposed to melancholic. In brief: delicately groovyand subtly catchy.samples:
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In Matador's ongoingquest to bring electronic music to rock fans, they introduce the debutfull-length all new release from Pete Astor, the man who is The Wisdomof Harry. Although the full-lengther "Stars of Super 8" was releasedlast year through Faux-lux, the disc simply collected 7" singlespreviously released through vinyl-only labels including WurlitzerJukebox. With a few vintage drum machines and a host of studio gear,this album cleverly combines low-fi electronica with an indie popmindset. "Coney Island of Your Mind" was the first 7" release from thisdisc and creatively rounds out Astor's guitar work with sugar sweetelectronic percussion. The rest of the disc jumps from dreamlikeshoegazer-influenced bass riffs and slow tempo grooves with delays a laMassive Attack to instrumental b-movie indie film noir score, allresulting from an apparent solitude in a well-packed studio. This sortof autonomy results in an underlying theme of emptiness - a sound notterribly far from a Beck-esque formula crossed with a stark realitysimilar to walking home from a bus stop on a cold and rainy evening.Where it's at - I got two 909s and a microphone.samples:
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Voidstar's 2nd and 3rd CDreleases are live performances from these New Hampsters liveperformances in the cultural mecca known as Lowell, MA. "Folded Time 1:Ambiagramaphone" was recorded at a performance at RRRecords andfeatures 18 tracks of improvisational-sounding noise mishmosh. Theremay be a certain order to the chaos however, as the pulses and noiseeffects change and develop through each track. In addition to this,each track features one element carried over from the prevoius track.The noises are cool, the music isn't stale but the vocal work is quiteunsettling. I can't make up my mind if it's necessary or I justflat-out hate it. Thankfully it's low enough in the mix that it almostdoesn't matter. While the group definitely has some influences in thebeat department, some of the repetitious loops echo of StevenStapleton's production work on Legendary Pink Dots' "Malachai."
"Folded Time 2" is subtitled, 'Spiritual Music for ExistentialDeviants,' and is mainly pulled from a live performance at radiostation WJUL, a month after the RRRecords performance. The sounds arerelatively the same yet more samples, including silly turntablescratching are abused in cotributing to a more constructional sound.The creepy vocals once again are extremely irritating and repetitious.I'm finding it hard to resist all temptations to hit stop on the disc.The disc is rounded out by a second-half which contains songs eitherreworked by the group or remixed by friends like Ukuphambana and ZipperSpy. While the second half is much more attentive to organized chaosthan the first part of this disc, I'm not thinking this is somethingI'll be pulling from the shelves to listen to very often.samples:
- Equestrian (from part 1)
- In the Clock Mines of Leviathan (from part 1)
- The Sum Of... (remixed by Zipperspy) (from part 2/3)
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While you may have heardother tracks from Ukuphambana on the Boston: Not London compilation onthe CFOM label, you most likely haven't. This debut release collectsvarious scraps of recordings kicking around in the vaults for thisproject, orchestrated by Chris Castiglione. Unlike many malicious youngDIY upstarts, Castiglione isn't afraid to play with distortion andpitch changes, tempo shifts and outside sound sources. The collectionranges from sounds and beats and styles making it a true album. To me,when an artist throws together a ton of songs that soundsimilar--style, instrumentation, subject--the end result resembles moreof a 12" single of versions as opposed to a true album in the grandscheme of things. "Gritware Composite" has both quantity and quality.While it can be a tough listen to get through 23 tracks at over 71minutes, it's tough love and well-worth investigating. If this is tobecome a professional release, however, something's got to be doneabout the artwork and CD-R manufacturing. This and the following discscan be obtained through Voidstar's website and probably not your local stores.samples:
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A precursor to the nextfull-length Techno Animal (to be released by Matador worldwide) takesthe form of a collaborative 12" with rapper Dalek. "Megaton" is theTechno Animal contribution - an aggressive dark one. It's somethingwe're expecting from Techno Animal for a while and this track doesindeed deliver. Side 1 is rounded out by "Classical Homicide" -originally a Dalek song, re-treated by Techno Animal with a beefed upsense of sinister, combined with piercing sound effects. Side 2features the original "Classical Homicide," by Dalek, which is somewhatapocalyptic, dark and distorted already. The beats are fine and thesound changes, like a storm building up, calming down and then crashingthrough your house, leaving all your possessions in a scattered pilesof rubble. The second track, Dalek's altered take of Techno Animal's"Megaton" adds rap and starts off as a seemingly calmer, quieterversion musically, it's not before too long when the beats comepounding in, loud and abrasive, before hushing down for the end.samples:
- Megaton
- Classical Homicide (Techno Animal remix)
- Classical Homicide
- Megaton (Dalek remix)
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Every once in a while, arecord comes along that seems to perfectly sum up everything that'sright about a particular type of music at that moment, as well asoffering a glimpse of where the genre might be headed. Closer Colder isone of those records. Following on a back-catalogue of a mere two EPs,this debut album from David Kosten's Faultline project is anoutstanding and accomplished hybrid of dub-heavy beats, distortedelectronic rhythms, ethereal voices, found sounds, and unique liveinstrumentation including xylophone, trumpet, strings and more. Everytrack deserves time in the spotlight, but in the interest of space,I'll try to focus on a few highlights, like the title track that soundslike This Mortal Coil as remixed by Mick Harris and directed by DavidLynch (it features a nice vocal snippet of Dennis Hopper from BlueVelvet); or the juxtaposition of quirky melody and perky beats withdeath threats left on Kosten's answering machine by a vocalist herejected on the track "Control"; or the floating ambience of theuntitled hidden track that closes the set; or - ah, hell, they're allso good, just get the damn thing! Closer Colder was originally releasedin the UK nearly a year ago on Leaf, it's now available in the USAthrough Thirsty Ear.samples:
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Known in English-speaking countries as 'Fantastic Planet,' the sountrack from this highly acclaimed cult-classic cartoon film from 1973 is finally available. For any fan of the film, this is a -must have- as the music is spectacularly anthemic and seemingly timeless. As I was browsing aorund the Twisted Village here in Cambridge, I saw the recently arrive disc sitting on the counter, priced up and ready to hit the shelves. My jaw dropped and I had to walk away with it. Minutes later in Other Music, the crew found it fit for in-store play and I was in heaven.
 
The music is a futuristic look which is dated by the early 70s, with a rich brass and string orchestra playing alongside various electronic guitars, analogue keyboards, drums and slappy bass. From the first few notes, chills run down my spine as I think back to when I watched this first on late night television at around 15 years old. Immediately the main themes are burned deep into my skull. The sound pulls me in like the pied piper led the mice and I end up whistling the themes all day long. My only complaint is that at 37 minutes, it's far too short.
 
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Available once again (no clue if this one's limited) is one of my top-10 albums of the year. The Un-Releases was originally released earlier this year in an "official" bootleg teeny-tiny quantity which barely made it across the water to the USA. Now, through K in Olympia, Washington the disc should be easier to get a hold of.
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The Montreal-based collective Molasses has released its second discthrough Alien8 Recordings' associated label, Fancy. Like the first one,the packaging is exquisite (a triple-gatefold sleeve with embossedwriting and stickers) and the music is limited to only a few songs(three if you don't count the untitled first track of church bells).Each song tears at the gut strings from a seemlingly tired heartbrokensoul from a cold, bleak and desolate area, north of the border.Molasses is led by singer/songwriter Scott Chernoff and featuresgodspeed members Thierry (bass) and Norsola (cello) as well as ShalabiEffect leader Sam Shalabi on guitar. This time around, the collectivesound has matured, with the production sounding far more professionalbut not losing that human feel. Included is a 14-minute version ofAmazing Grace, and while this old standard pops up almost seemingly toooften, the Molasses version contained herein fits in perfectly with therest of the disc.samples:
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