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Dub is the foundation. It's in everything we do, whether it's the structure, the effects,
or the bass line. It's what all other elements are based on. You hear that
even on the heaviest parts of the new record. - Joe Tomino, drummer
New Heavy is indeed heavy, and hard. It references Metallica more than Marley, and features the one and only MIKE PATTON (Faith No More, Mr Bungle, Tomahawk, Fantomas) on "Not Alone," which Billboard Magazine describes as "an old school Faith No More-style rocker." A re-mix of this track by Mike Patton as "Peeping Tom" will soon be released on Mike's own Ipecac Recordings later this year.
How did this collaboration come about? Simple. Mike Patton heard Dub Trio's music. Yep, that's all it took. No mutual friends, no money, no label pressure, just a few rough mixes from the New Heavy sessions and Patton knew they were on to something:
Dub Trio are very talented musicians that cover many different genres in each
piece they play. They are doing something that very few artists are doing today,
and doing it their own way. - Mike Patton
Their versatility and singularity have as much to do with musical acumen as with the communication between each member's unique personality:
We have our own musical language. We communicate with each other through
our instruments, eye contact, energy. That's why no two live shows are the same,
no two performances of a song. That's also why it's as important to see us as it is to hear us,
because you can see that interaction on stage. - Stu Brooks, bassist
THE PLAYERS:
Joe, Stu and Dave not only bring individual talents and personalities to Dub Trio but also a unique set of professional experience, having worked with 18 Cent, Common, Mary J. Blige, Mos Def and Mobb Deep. Joe currently drums with the recently reunited Fugees. Stu continues to work with G-Unit & 18 Cent (he dropped the massive bass line on this summer's hit "So Seductive (feat. 18 Cent)" by Tony Yayo). And Dave, along with his brother, started the punk/emo band Like Yesterday with Matt Rubano, the bassist for Taking Back Sunday (who Like Yesterday tours with frequently). And perhaps all this crept into Dub Trio's sound, which is undoubtedly more aggressive and bigger than before. They are poised for a large impact, and this album will put them there.
In Joe Tomino's hands, the drums function as an entire section, rather than as one instrument. You will hear this section transform over the course of a song; the pulse never wavering but morphing from drum machine-esque sounds, to a big rock assault, to spaced out dub rhythms, echoes spiraling from his kit. In other words, Joe is a madman on drums--the Muppet's Animal in human flesh--guiding much of the band's energy and intensity.
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Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves is the Legendary Pink Dots' 25th anniversary album (and in the running for best album title ever). It's hard to believe a quarter century has passed since the Pink Dots first unearthed their complex vision where fate and whimsy cast stones at each other on some hazy, polluted playground. LPD's unusual legacy of psychedelia, industrial gloom, and textural madness has made them a constant presence on the innovative fringes of cult music, and has earned them near-universal respect from critics and peers. It was this legacy that shaped much of the album:
The actual theme of "legacy", "the consequence of past and present action on the future", has consciously informed much of
this release. In some ways, it's been a central-core-theme of all our songwriting these last 25 years. - Phil 'The Silverman' Knight
Twenty-five years later, the Dots have hardly paused for a breath. Edward Ka-Spel, The Silverman and company (Niels Van Hoornblower, Raymond Steeg & returning member Martijn de Kleer), still make boundlessly weird, beautifully disturbing music.
This is an album about mortality & immortality, about time ticking away mercilessly, about seizing the moment and damning the consequences. Your victims are lining up on both sides of the corridor, unborn yet forgiving. We are all pitifully human and we all want to take everything with us at the end, but there is no end...just a darkening endless horizon...
- Edward Ka-Spel
In addition to the 25th anniversary album, the Dots will embark on a massive North American tour this June to celebrate this landmark occasion. Then they'll disappear into the ether...until their next haunting.
TRACKLIST: 1) Count On Me, 2) No Matter What You Do, 3) Stigmata (Part 4), 4) Feathers At Dawn,
5) Please Don't Get Me Wrong, 6) Peace Of Mind, 7) The Island Of Our Dreams, 8) Bad Hair,
9) The Made Man's Manifesto, 10) A Silver Thread, 11) Your Number Is Up
PREVIOUS RELEASES ON ROIR: The Whispering Wall (cd - cat#RUSCD 8286)
All the King's Men (cd/lp - cat#RUSCD/LP 8278)
Under Triple Moons (cd - cat#RUSCD 8231)
PRESS QUOTES:
"Since 1980, LPD have created some of the most enigmatic and challenging compositions in modern music. The uniqueness of their work is due in large part to its omnivorous ability to consume and transform a variety of styles into a new, cohesive entity. The introverted folk of Nick Drake may be found here, as well as the graphic cyberpunk nightmares of Frank Tovey (Fad Gadget), not to mention the rhythmic permutations of Philip Glass. From Beefheart to Brahms, the sources of LPD's quicksilver soundscapes are myriad. What holds them all together is Ka-Spel's dense lyricism and grim obsessions." - ROLLING STONE
"Proceeding out of a hodgepodge of gloomy/fringey/hippie antecedents -- Joy Division, Syd Barrett, Faust, etc. -- but adding a classical sensibility, involuted mythology, found-sound sampling weirdness, plus all sorts of stylistic cross-mingling and experimentation, Edward Ka- Spel (vocals, lyrics, keyboards), Phil Knights (aka The Silver Man; keyboards) and a shifting collection of associates have turned the Legendary Pink Dots into an open-ended adventure. Although certainly prone to enigmatic risk-taking, the enormously resourceful LPD is a mellifluous and dynamically restrained proposition: this is one dip into the rock netherworld that won't send you running for cover. The lyrics, however -- a disturbing onslaught of doom, violence and apocalypse -- are a different story." - TROUSER PRESS
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Mark Spybey (Dead Voices on Air) and Andy Eardley (Delayer), all three
ex-members of Zoviet France. The sound is like a digital modern version
of ZF cmposed and played by three living legends of experimental music.
Prices: EUR 14,- per copy excl. VAT and shipping.
Wholesale please ask.
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probably the NE´s heaviest and noisiest album ever. It has never before
been re-issued on compact disc and comes with the original artwork. The
sound was carefully remastered by Nigel Ayers in 2006 and stays close
to the original analogue recording. A very limited edition of only 300
copies, so please order soon to avoid disappointment.
Prices: EUR 14,- per copy excl. VAT and shipping.
Wholesale please ask.
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Simonds' words are concise and dense. These aren’t just lyrics but carefully constructed poetry. On paper they take up little space but on the CD she instils a mighty power in them when she sings. This is especially evident in “Huge (The Joy of Trouble),” which opens the CD. It takes up from where the previous volume left off. Simonds is joined again by Brian Eno but this time Roger Doyle and Hugh O’Neill have been added to Fovea Hex’s ranks. The music is subtle and multidimensional. Doyle and Simonds both play glass which gives a fragile and ethereal sound and complements her vocals wonderfully.
The Hafler Trio’s Andrew McKenzie also makes a reappearance on “A Song for Magda.” This instrumental track (well it features voices but their effect is atmospheric as opposed to lyrical) is positively chaotic by Fovea Hex standards. McKenzie’s doesn’t hold as much sway on this as he did on Bloom. Colin Potter joins the group as a performer here and it is his influence that comes to the fore here. The music keeps shifting; it never stays still long enough for anything concrete to take hold. The only constant in the piece is Percy Jones’ remarkably deep fretless bass.
The final track on Huge, “While you’re Away,” is exceptional. Doyle plays more glass on this piece to create that delicate atmosphere again. Simonds plays a gentle rhythm on her harmonium and a small choir of herself, Laura Sheeran and Sarah McQuaid sing blissfully. The lyrics evoke the freedom and the greenness of the countryside: “I’m with the fox and goose my feet run wild and my tongue is loose.” Further adding to the beauty of the piece are the strings arranged and played by Cora Venus Lunny (daughter of the legendary Donal Lunny). Her arrangement is simply gorgeous. The song finishes with crystal clear recordings of a marsh warbler and a dipper, adding a stronger pastoral feeling to the music. I cannot get enough of this piece.
For the lucky few who got Huge early on, there is a bonus disc called “The Discussion” with McKenzie reassembling the material like he did with Bloom. The result is drastically different to what I encountered on the other disc. Whereas Simonds’ music seems very much to be based on earth, looking up, McKenzie’s reinterpretation of the material sounds like the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey should sound. It is celestial and magnificent.
Reading back on what I’ve written, the above could look like gross exaggeration. Huge is an absolutely stunning release which I urge people to get on board about. The one drawback is its brevity: at just under 20 minutes it is gone far too soon. However, being such a rich composition, it lends itself well to repeated listens.
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After a mediocre attempt at recording latin versions of rock standards and an appalling attempt at latin standards, Uwe Schmidt revisits the music he clearly knows best: electro pop. This tribute to Yellow Magic Orchestra has the energy and excitement as his Kraftwerk covers despite the overused latin samples and pointless interludes and transitional pieces.
Gathered for Yellow Fever are a number of friends including Mouse On Mars, Burnt Freidman, Towa Tei, and the three members of Yellow Magic Orchestra themselves. Argenis Brito is back on lead vocals and live musicians, when used, make for fantastic results. Thankfully with CD technology, it's easy to avoid every odd numbered track, as they're usually rather irritating 20 second bits with cut ups, sampled words, and underdeveloped themes. In the perfect world these tracks would be far longer and fully realized, like "Coco Agogo" with Akfen and Jorge Gonzalez, and appear on a 10 track second disc, leaving the 10 YMO covers on the first disc.
Perez Prado's oversampled grunt can be found on more than one track (actually, nearly all) and plenty of the rhythms are actually sampled but the music in songs like "Limbo" with Yukihiro Takahashi and "Tong Poo" with Ryuichi Sakamoto is so finely arranged and executed that it becomes easy to forgive. The marimba and vibraphone playing combined with the shaking percussions become so mesmerising on nearly all the proper songs that it's hard not to enjoy. The Haruomi Hosono contributed "The Madman" is a clever nod to the YMO sound in its tacky synth horn and percussion sounds (a'la YMO style) alongside the live horn and percussion playing of Senor Coconut's orchestra while the finale, the classic "Firecracker," is grand indeed with the dense, feverish interplay between the musicians, ending with the crash and long resonant fade of an Asian gong. The classic Macintosh alert sound on track 21 which follows is, as nearly all the other odd numbered track titles, completely useless.
I warmly welcome more Senor Coconut releases recycling the techno pop that Schmidt and many German music nerds grew up on, but if I see more Deep Purple covers or original attempts at Favela, I'll know to stay away.
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Baird is like a siren of the deep woods who can enchant travelers with a few well-chosen words. Songs like “Breaking the Roofs” and “The Last Word” remind me of folk tales in which faeries kidnap humans. “Morning Song #2,” on the other hand, sounds like an organ that’s played late at night in a forest clearing, while everyone else is fast asleep and upon waking cannot account for their disturbing dreams. “Storms Stay Fine” is the song that’s the most like a lullaby, with water and Baird’s soothing singing.
Baird’s only misstep is “Bury Deeper,” which is too overtly morbid and has a vocal melody that’s a little grating at times, but the song is so brief that it subtracts very little from the whole. As further testament to her talent, Baird also plays almost all of the instruments on the album yet makes it sound as if she has many collaborators with their own communication styles. Although the album runs a little short of half an hour, I prefer Baird’s economy of expression compared to an album that’s padded merely to fulfill running length expectations. Lullaby for Strangers proves that she can bewitch in a short amount of time.
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Despite their attempts to evoke Eastern lands, this medieval European connotation is especially apparent to me on songs such as “Past Times,” “Child of Typhoon,” “Amanda Blaine,” and “Neptune Society Ball.” Sometimes, like on “Little Alili,” “Ne’er Do Will” and “Bao Ba Cha,” I liked the music but couldn’t get past the stagnant vocal melodies. This was particularly disappointing on “Ne’er Do Will,” since the music itself is some of the most transportive on the album. The best vocals are found on “Huaf Weishenme,” because the approach differs slightly from the others, but it’s too little too late.
Almost by default, I prefer the album’s instrumentals, although some of them have a faux-ethnic quality I just couldn’t swallow. “Mao Mcow” and the title track are played well, though ultimately sound too Western to be convincing. “Just Now” has propulsive energy that’s undermined by random shouts that I assume are supposed to be encouraging, but took me out of the song. In contrast I enjoyed all of “Sophie” quite a bit, a piece which sounds like something to be played at a Sicilian mobster’s funeral and isn’t like anything else on the album.
I appreciate the fact that the group’s trying to do something different, but too often their attempts sound forced or naïve. Rather than trying to bring together so many disparate styles, they might do better by exploring one or two in depth.
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Taking a side step from his series of numbered Astral Social Club volumes, Neil Campbell drops a quick two track smack round the head. Recorded live in April 2006, this may be titled after a bolt from the heavens but it’s much less rapturous than his usual material. This is a simpler, sweatier, and less delicately formed ASC release that shows him in a heads down noisier drive.
While the guitar is the central component of both tracks here, it’s used in very different ways. Quickly switching from punchy work which spreads out to an extended guitar squall, the sounds on "Passing Star" are the more frantic of the two. Even so, the track fails to really catch fire in comparison to "Solar Filament" or the Astral Social Club’s previous incredible output.
The stomp of "Solar Filament" has a hell of a lot less high end than its predecessor, taking a thicker thrashier route. Rhythmically stapled through the chest with a cheap wine Mo Tucker bash, this track doesn’t need to sink into really heavy or dubby depths. Instead it remains a fairly steadily splurging digital merge of elements. Like some gut punched and winded organism the stratums breathily heaves under the riffage. The layering of sounds here fails to shimmer like Campbell’s official Astral Social Club volumes, but this punked out path is equally as engrossing. At around the nine-minute mark the main thread is derailed through a burst of FX, a semtex strapped fuzz pedal takes its cue to spill the guitar one louder across the track. At its core lies what is either middle eastern music layered at three times the speed or metal girders attacked by bees; either way it’s a furious melee of notes. Just as the swarming stomp finally threatens to spill over into firework melodies the whole thing zips off into the distance like a tape reel running out.
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Arable
The album opens promisingly with “Thanking You for Listening,” which starts off with a beautiful trumpet, xylophone and strings introduction. Before long the song slowly changes instrumentation with each instrument playing around the same basic structure but giving radically different effects. Guitars, electronics and cello all add a distinct layer to the song. It all gels together when a beautiful, distant female singer repeats the title of the song over and over again.
The rest of the CD shows a huge variation in instruments. Banjos, flute, violins, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, a wide variety of electronic gizmos, drums, mandolin, field recordings and various noises all give The Matinee Orchestra plenty of room to manoeuver. No two tracks sound too much alike despite sharing a number of common elements. Style and timings are played with to give enough variety to prevent any risk of boredom. There is a lot going on in each piece but the music is mixed very well so that all the components are given their right amount of space. This is especially evident in the extremely long (in length and in title) climax to the album: “It’s a Fantasy World/Everyone has the Right to Protest even if no one Listens.” The music ebbs and flows over some lovely field recordings with as many instruments as possible appearing throughout its 13 minutes. This may give the impression of a clumsy hodgepodge of a track but it is perfectly composed and performed.
“Run for Cover (It’s Going to Rain)” starts off sounding like nearly every folk artist that’s released an album in the last four years. A strummed acoustic guitar and a vocalist that wavers just a little too much nearly make me hit the skip button every time it starts. Luckily some tasteful drumming, trumpet and electronics pull it up to acceptable standards. Memories of the awful intro are dashed with the next piece; “Pray, Rock, Stone, Paper, Scissors.” A music box gives way to a cascade of trumpets which dance around a slow, pulsing bass and guitar rhythm. It is a stunning, simple piece of music.
The first time I listened to this album I thought it was rubbish. Listening to it again and again made me wonder what was wrong with me that first time. The Matinee Orchestra have made an absolutely delightful album. It is cheery, easy to listen to and importantly has enough depth to keep me putting it back in my CD player.
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From the get-go, the mood is set by the first sample, a rainy thunderstorm. As cliche as that might sound, Ozeanische Gefühle truly is a creepy album. The drones creep into the picture like glaciers, quiet at first but building to throbbing heads that ebb and flow away. This album makes me feel like I'm sitting in a run-down shack in an empty field at night during a rainstorm, but it goes beyond that: it's an engaging,interesting album. Incredibly, there are no boring moments to be found here. I'm hoping Matt Waldrom returns to the unsettling-drone arena again, because he is clearly good at what he does.
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