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Volcano the Bear continue their esoteric but quickly comprehendible sounds and structure via this lathe-cut 8" single, the debut release on the Alt.Vinyl label. This is the second piece of seven inch VTB vinyl in a many months to come out of the North East of England, and shows the band investing solid musical experiments with new labels, outside of their regular album schedule.
This strange mix of early '90s work and more recent material, showcases some of the many moods of Steve Stapleton. Classic cut-and-paste insanity from Nurse With Wound’s middle period has been paired with some of Stapleton’s powerful ambient vocal pieces from the last few years. This compilation does not make much sense on paper and perhaps is a little misguided in terms of its scope but it does sound brilliant from every angle.
On a stop at Steve Albini's famed Electrical Audio studios during a recent joint tour, the Washington state husband and wife duo recorded this collaboration with Chicago’s noise/metal trio, later mixed by Randall Dunn. The result is a dark, yet captivating set of tracks that brings in bits of drone, black metal, post-rock, and gentle piano passages, bearing the mark of both but sounding entirely unique.
Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler make a perplexing and contradictory duo. Take their computers away from them and their differences, both in theory and in practice, become clear. Perhaps because of these differences, Peter and Marcus have produced just two records together: 2007’s One (Snow Mud Rain), released by Erstwhile, and USA, a live recording released by Pan in 2011. Composed entirely of high intensity, tuneless noise, USA offers no explanation for its rationale or structure, or whether it has either to begin with, which leaves only the quality of the sounds to speak for themselves.
Way back in 1996, the duo of Thomas Köner and Andy Mellwig released this singles collection on the revered Chain Reaction label.  Over the ensuing years, it has justifiably been hailed as an inarguable dub techno classic, but it has remained maddeningly out-of-print for quite some time.  Now it is thankfully back again and it still sounds pretty amazing, which is a rather astonishing feat for cutting edge techno from almost two decades ago.  I'm a little disappointed that Type did not try to replicate (or outdo) the original, famously CD-damaging metal packaging though.
Great rock 'n' roll bands can be deceptively hard to find. There's too often an empty gap between the dime-a-dozen bands playing to alt-rock radio, punk/hardcore traditionalism, and the toothless, blog-hyped indie scene. Thankfully, The Men exist outside all of those spheres as one of the finest rock bands around.
Last year, I was pleasantly surprised by how much better Guider was than its predecessor.  Now Disappears has surprised me again, greatly toning down their signature Neu!-worship in favor of something that sounds like a hell of a lot like GVSB-worship (or perhaps merely a deep fascination with Mark E. Smith).  Fortunately, I thought Girls Against Boys were pretty awesome in their prime and The Fall aren't so bad either.  More importantly, this quizzical shift in direction coincides with a fairly massive leap forward in the band's songwriting, making this the punchiest, hookiest, leanest, and most immediately gratifying album that the band has made yet.
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In my bedroom, behind my bed rests a small stereo which I've owned for approximately 9 years. One of my favorite moments of every day is falling back into a soft pillow with music playing while I fall asleep. Unfortunately the CD player portion of this stereo ceased to work over a month ago. I brought it into a trusted local shop and waited for nearly four weeks before it was returned to me. Unfortunately the CD portion couldn't be saved, but I could attach a portable and still get a good stereo sound behind my ears. Excited to have my player back behind my bed, 'EAR 2' was the first selection chosen to fall asleep to. Utterly blissful. Like 'EAR 1' released EARlier this year, this disc features (alleged) old sources of C&C material re-attacked with a focus on depth and space. 'EAR 2' is a revisitation of Cosey Fanni Tutti's "Time To Tell" release and while EAR1 featured about 15 medium-sized tracks, EAR2 features four long, stretched out drones with echoes and bleedings from "Time to Tell."
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I was excited when I heard this was getting reissued, as I missed the boat on the special 93 edition, unfortunately I was somewhat saddened to find out that the disc was coming without the special packaging with post cards and such. However, when the disc showed up in my box my excitement grew again. The booklet is huge and concise - 40 pages with extensive liner notes, biography, discography, interview from the early 80s, and lots of beautiful nude photos of Cosey Fanni Tutti. As for the music, along with three lengthy instrumental sound journeys, a bonus fourth track has been added, "Such is Life" pulled from tapes of an old performance. "Time To Tell" was originally released on cassette back in 1982, then on CD for the first time in 1993. The disc showcases a time when her music was much like some of the late studio Throbbing Gristle period (Journey Through a Body / In the Shadow of the Sun). Unlike the poppy electronic body music from Chris and Cosey of the late 1980s, the music here is truly timeless. Cosey's musical talents (arguably under-utilized in TG) as a guitarist, cornet player and technician shine through in some of the best spacial drifting soundscapes, long before indie rock kids were fawning over Stars of the Lid.
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The Unutterable comes as a pleasant surprise, that is; two great new Fall albums in a row. 15 new songs. One of them ("Dr. Bucks Letter") is my fave Fall song right now. "Octo Realm/Ketamine Sun" is really great too, as is "Cyber Insekt". The songs on this disc combine 25 years of Mark E. Smiths experience in a very individual way.
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