Now somewhere in the realms of prog/psych/metal/whatever, at one point Norway's Motopsycho were among the crop of potential "next big things" in a post-Nirvana world, creating music that wasn't far removed from the "alternative" scene that would soon be exploited and plundered to give us the likes of Nickleback and the existence of "nu-metal". Even then, however, there was a streak of weirdness that the band would later tap into more deeply, and on the double CD/triple LP Timothy's Monster, the band perfectly balanced catchy rock with bizarre outbursts. Long a cult favorite, this set reproduces the original album in its entirety (the US and UK versions edited the longer pieces to make it fit on a single disc), with an unreleased "first draft" of the album, and a disc full of outtakes/B-sides. It’s a lot to digest, but even for the casual fan, it's a strong set.
Before Sublime Frequencies began their plunge into the gritty and forgotten corners of global music, there was Pat Conte, a curmudgeonly postal employee and WFMU DJ from Long Island with a basement full of 78s. In the '90s, he curated an impressive series of rather unusual compilations named after an enigmatic and semi-legendary collection of photographs published in the 1930s. This is the second volume in the well-deserved vinyl reissue of the series and it is everything I could hope for: an achievement made even more remarkable by the fact that Conte had never traveled further than Canada when it was originally issued.
When it was first released in 1959, Alan Lomax described this album as "the wistful and tender magic of the young girl that is beyond art." Obviously, Lomax was a bit impartial since they had just completed an exhaustive song-collecting journey through the American South together, but it is impossible to think of a more apt description. Collins' appeal has always been the unwavering simplicity and purity that she brings to the well-worn songs that she loves, traits that are just as timeless and trend-proof as any traditional melody. Sweet England is not the crowning achievement of Shirley's influential discography, but its reissue makes its clear that her vision was firmly in place from the very beginning and that the passage of five decades has done little to blunt its impact.
In 2005 Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom released Days of Mars, a suite of sprawling, futuristic soundscapes played on Gavin Russom’s home-built synthesizers and recorded live onto tape. While sparsely praised at the time, the album has held up remarkably well, enough so that DFA decided to press a single of a previously unreleased track culled from those sessions.
Adam Forkner’s second album for Kranky sees him further developing his already exquisite sound. Each of the four pieces on this album float in a way that lives up to the album’s title: thick cumulous clouds threatening to rain. The dreamy compositions are low key but utterly bewitching; the sinuous synth rhythms and ephemeral, indistinct vocals create a womb-like feeling of comfort. As such, New Clouds has been good these last few weeks for helping me forget a lot of tension.
Steven R. Smith is one of the most fascinating guitarists and writers this country has. Along with talents like Glenn Jones, Jack Rose, and Ben Chasny, he has composed a remarkable and singular body of work grounded in the history and spirit of America (guts and all). After nearly 15 years and well over 30 albums Smith has composed one of his best records yet, one that approaches the greatness of Tableland. Economical and sharply focused, Cities plays out like the soundtrack to humanity's slow and sad funeral.
There has certainly been a flood of excellent African and Latin compilations released over the last few years, but Soundway seems to have outdone themselves (and everyone else) with this one. This is some of the hottest, wildest, and most unrelentingly rhythmic music ever set to wax.
This follow-up to 2008’s beloved Shadow Music of Thailand ambitiously expands the scope of its predecessor to cover three decades of Thai pop in Sublime Frequencies’ characteristically non-comprehensive and freewheeling fashion. As expected, the result is yet another exotic, raucously fun, and thoroughly kitschy classic.
Although specified as a double EP, this release is more of an album split into two distinctly different sets, each of which showcase a specific element of Clare Adrienne Cameron Hubbard’s sound. The first set of tracks are sparse acoustic and vocal pieces that have a more intimate sound while the second adds in a significant amount of digital textures and processing to give an entirely different character. While both differ, there is a consistent intimacy that pervades both sets.
Possibly deemed too weird to exist upon its original release in the late 1970s, this mysterious LP has been given a second chance in a more modern world with this limited release, surely motivated by Julian Cope’s outspoken love of it. Some 30 years later, this CD issue is still a difficult prospect, combining early krautrock experimentations, brain-damaging blues forays, and a healthy dose of surrealistic psychedelia.
The irascible and idiosyncratic Michael Hurley has left an alternately memorable and inconsistent wake of releases behind him in his 40+ years of toiling in folk music's lunatic fringe, but he seems to be in the midst of a creative renaissance as of late. This eclectic, lived-in batch of songs is nothing revelatory, but oozes with shambling, offbeat charisma nonetheless.
Despite being a duo, Hototogisu have always had the vibe of a recluse within their music. There’s always been a distance and privacy in their sound since Matthew Bower (Skullflower / Sunroof!) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards / Zaimph) first teamed up a few records into Hototogisu’s discography. Within the morass of sounds there’s always been a huge human element, but it’s never been a consciously communicative voice. Hototogisu have always been unique in the field of drone rock, pushing competition into either straight up plagiarism or shunting them into reinvention.
Isis are undeniably one of the most popular hard rock independent label bands in the business while Aereogramme deserve to be right up there with them, headlining mega shows with the same numbers. Both have soft and loud moments, both Aaron Turner and Craig B can coo like a dove and scream like Satan's spawn, but, even as this is one of the best In the Fishtank releases, I'm skeptical if it will gain new fans for either entity.
The latest release in an impressive line of ‘Merz’ titled releases onImportant may prove to be Merzbow’s most easily enjoyable and finestbeat related work to date. Masami Akita continues to fight thegood fight on behalf of the animal kingdom though his arsenal of noise,static, fury and a trusty drum machine.
Thisguy who seems to care about the welfare of animals and suffers from asevere case of misanthropy has me entranced. Masami Akita'spredisposition to releasing animal-related albums has spawned yetanother record that has perhaps no sonic relation to its title or PETAsponsorship.
Deerhoof have always done an admirable job of spanning the wide gulfbetween pure pop and pure noise. The most recent release from the San Franciscoquartet is their strongest synthesis of noise and pop yet.
Both of these artists have discographies that consistently combine the worlds of laptop based electronica and the purest, most natural possible human instrumentation into strong, cohesive works, and this collaboration is no exception. With Minamo's blending of folk and experimental electronics and English's penchant for dulcet tones and field recordings, the results are an even more perfect synthesis of the varying styles.
Consisting of their first released output since going on hiatus in 2003, this set is a lengthy collection compiling all four Peel Sessions the group performed, most of their b-sides, and their three out of print early EPs before signing with Mute. The result is a five year span of music that will satisfy both the fan who has all of the albums, and the newcomer who has yet to hear anything from the trio.
The fact that Aranos's latest album was recorded live at Prague's Archa theater earlier this year is pretty irrelevant, aside from the surprise that one man with a violin is able to conjure up such an unholy cacophony on a stage by himself. Instead, Archarcha is far more notable for being the formal debut of a particularly violent and difficult new long-form piece, the 30-minute "Concerto No. 42 for Violin and HD." Bizarrely, the album also works as a kind of a perversely effective career retrospective, despite the fact that only one of the four pieces has ever been released before.
Over the course of his career, Jim Thirlwell has hugely expanded his repertoire with his Manorexia and Steroid Maximus projects as well as soundtrack work; a far cry and a lot more rewarding than my first exposure to him in my teens as a remixer of the likes of Nine Inch Nails. However, no matter what sideline work he does, when he comes back to Foetus it is a guarantee that the music will be brilliant. His role as a composer has fed progressively more into Foetus (fitting considering the seeds of Manorexia were sown and germinated in earlier Foetus albums) and Hide has a much wider scope than previously encountered.
